A Bicyclist's Dream 



of rhe 



Road to Heaven 



Wirh illuslrations 



BY J. BUNYSM LE/V\ON 



■ MANCHESTER, N. H. 
Prin.ted by the John B.Clarke Company 
1899 



49486 



COPYEIGHT, 1899, 
BY 

J. BuJfYAN Lemon. 



II.LrSTEATED BY 
J. ED. COFFIN, 
MANCIIESTEE, N. 11. 



Dedicated 

TO 

Miss Lelia B. Parrish, 

WHOM I MET IN THE PARK OF YoUTH, 
AMD WHO HAS EVER SINCE 
BEEN MY DELIGHTFUL COMPANION 
ON OUR JOURNEY 
TOWARD THE SEA OF ETERNITY. 



PEEFACE. 



"^^HIS little book for more than a year has been iu process 
of development during the spare moments of a bu<y 
pastor's life. The author hopes that every one -who reads it 
will be delighted to recommend it to others, and thus help 
to carry on the good work which this presentation of spirit- 
ual truth is intended to accomplish. 

J. BUXYAX Lemox. 

Pastors Study. First Baptist Church, 
Manchrster, ^\ H. 
Novemher, 1899. 



" For tlie cliild shall die an hundred years old." — 7sa. Ixv. 20. 



a BICYCLISP5 DRCAN 
or THE ROAD TO HEANTN. 

CHAPTEE I. 

IN my dream I had just made a century ran 
from Infancy to Old Age, and was resting 
close to the water^s brink on the shore of the Great 
Western Sea of Eternity. In the morning, when 
we started on our journey, we were a party of one 
hundred in number; but now, at the close of day, 
there were only seven of us who had reached the 
destination for which we started. 

7 



8 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



When we entered the beantifnl park of Youth 
we were all together. Bnt there the trees and 
flowers and grass invited ns to dismount and rest, 
or to turn aside from the straight road of Progress 
and meander aimlessly around through shadowy 
dells, alongside sparkling streams and placid lakes. 
Some of our party yielded to the temptation and 
spent the very best hours of the morning in ac- 
complishing nothing at all. Moreover, they used 
up much of their strength and money in entertain- 
ing one another with frivolous sport, social gather- 
ings, and fascinating games. Doubtless they had 
a .good time, but that was not the special object 
^vhich we set out to attain when we started on this 
journey. 

Only seven of us reached the goal which was 
set before us. iind when we reached it, we laid 
down our wheels upon the beach with one accord, 
and seated ourselves comfortably in a group to 
watch the sun go down into the wild and restless 
waves of that limitless expanse before us, — a sea 
out into which countless millions have sailed, but 
none returned. 

AVhile we were gazing into that distant sk}^, I 
saw a vision which my soul shall not forget until 
the sea of Eternity itself has passed away. Clouds 
of fantastic shapes gathered about that setting sun, 
and fashioned themselves into a golden city, with 
walls of jasper and gates of pearl. And as they 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



9 



were doing so, in the midst of them I canght a 
glimpse of Paradise, where angels walk at eventide 
and commune with the white-robed saints of re- 
deemed humanity. And I saw familiar faces there 
and beckoning hands. But the glory of the 
seraphim and cherubim above them so completely 
eclipsed the brightness of the saints that I could 
not long distinguish the forms and faces of my 
loved ones. 

Perhaps it was the great round setting sun, 
whose outer rim I faintly saw reflected a hundred 
times in those mysterious, ever-changing clouds, 
like wheelmen chasing each other in fairyland; 
or perhaps an angel anointed mine eyes to see 
underneath the cherubim such wheels as the 
prophet Ezekiel saw in the vision revealed to him 
by the river of Chebar; or perhaps I had ridden 
so far, and had watched my wheel so closely, that 
I could see nothing else but wheels continually. 
At any rate, no matter what the cause may have 
been, I saw in that glorious sunset wheels upon 
wheels, all kinds of wheels, wheels full of eyes 
like the ones the prophet Ezekiel saw, and wheels 
filled with living spirits, so that every part, whether 
tire or spoke or axle or hub, had a distinct per- 
sonalit}^, with a story to tell, a lesson to illustrate, 
and a moral to teach. 

I turned to my companions to draw their atten- 
tion to the marvelously fascinating scene. But I 



lo A BICYCLISTS DREAM. 

found them already gazing steadfastly npon it in 
quiet, soul-stirring meditation. 

Not a word was spoken by any of us until the 
vision disappeared. But when it had vanished 
out of sight the others intuitively turned toward 
me, an ordained teacher of spiritual truth, and 
desired to know what interpretation they should 
give to the signs which they had seen. 

Thereupon I set my wheel before them, and 
with lead-pencil in hand I wrote in large letters 
upon the tire of the forward wheel the word 
Faith, and upon the tire of the rear wheel the word 
Worhs. As I wrote these words I asked if any 
one of them could tell me how any cyclist could 
hope to make satisfactory progress on the road to 
heaven without understanding something of the 
true relation of faith to works. 

They gave their opinions readily, buf they 
differed widely in their conclusions, though they 
all admitted that the wheels which they had seen 
in the vision were so represented. When they 
found that they could not agree in this matter, 
and that not one of them had reached a conclusion 
that was entirely satisfactory to himself, they en- 
treated me to explain to them the vision without 
regard to the opinions they had expressed, that 
while the scene was yet fresh in memory they 
might associate with it the right interpretation 
thereof. 



" What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath 
faith, and have not works ? Can faith save him ? " —James ii. 14. 

CHAPTEE II. 

I TOOK my stand on the otliei^ side of my wheel, 
so that my audience might have an unobstructed 
view of the tires, spokes, and pedals. I explained 
to them that the forward wheel in a bicycle is 
the guiding wheel, just as faith is the guiding 
agency in the spiritual life. And the rear wheel 
in a bicycle is the pushing wheel, just as good 
works in the Christian life are necessary in order 
to advance and develop one's faith. Neither of 
these wheels can render the service for which it 
was created without the assistance of the other. 
II 



i2 A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



"In the vision wliicli we saw/' I went on to 
explain, "the axle of the forward wheel was named 
Hope, becanse hope is the center aronnd which 
faith revolves, and because hope is the indis- 
pensable support of faith. The axle of the rear 
wheel was named Love, because it is the source 
of all good works and the center from which the 
propelling power is distributed to every part of 
the machine. 

"The wheels which we saw in the clouds had one 
striking peculiarit}^ In all of them the central 
axle, or pedal-shaft, was shaped like a heart inside 
of a sprocket wheel, to which the pedals, named 
Prayer and Praise, were joined by strong arms or 
levers. This was a forceful illustration of that 
old Proverb of King Solomon which says, ^Keep 
thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the 
issues of life.' Every bicycler knows that this part 
of his machine must be kept in good order if he 
wishes to make progress easily and satisfactorily. 
For this is the point where life enters into the 
machinery, and this is the part that must always 
render perfect obedience to the rider and must 
always be kept under perfect control if danger is 
to be avoided. This is true in the spiritual world, 
where it is taught with special emphasis that 
prayer and praise must be joined to the heart with 
strong impulses in order to be effective. 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



13 



"The liandle-bar was named Judgment, because 
it is the source from which faith and hope receive 
their direction. But the agents which most in- 
fluence Judgment were represented as Sentiment 
and Eeason, personified as the two corkaline 
handles. 

''In the vision which we saw there were wheels 
with and wheels without chains. But every chain 
that we saw was made up of small links named 
Charity. These small links, riveted together by 
a common tie into an endless bond, conveyed the 
power from the sprocket wheel of the heart to 
the progressive wheel of good works, according to 
the directions given by the pedals of prayer and 
praise. In the chainless wheels that we saAv the 
same thing was accomplished by skillfully wrought 
mechanism which was hidden from our sight. 

"Misses A^era and Mabel Parrish have chainless 
wheels, but the rest of us have not. I confess that 
the last ten miles of our century run today tired 
me more than the twenty previous ones. This was 
because my chain had gathered dust until it was 
clogged and dry. But I noticed that the chain- 
less wheels of the Misses Parrish were in perfect 
trim for another century run when they dis- 
mounted at the end of this one. For the dust 
could not get into the running-gear of their wheels. 

"In the spiritual world there are people whose 
every little act of benevolence is made known to 



14 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



the public. The Pharisees of olden time were of 
this sort. They would sound a trumpet before 
them in the synagogues or in the streets or wher- 
ever they were about to make an offering. Those 
who follow their example today are often annoyed 
by the dust and mud of unkind criticism. Even 
when our intentions are good and our motives pure, 
our charitable deeds are often misunderstood and 
criticised, until the benevolent wheels of many 
rich men and organizations run very slowly and 
sluggishly. But when our alms are done in secret 
we are riding the improved chainless wheels on 
our road to heaven, and the unkind world cannot 
throw dust or mud upon the running-gear of our 
machinery. 

"When I first saw the vision I thought it was 
the reflection of our own wheels from the banks 
to the water and from the water to the clouds. 
For I saw a tandem precisely like the one on which 
Mr. and Mrs. Felix made this century run. But 
when I saw that there were words engraven on 
every part of it, and that I could even read the 
names of the spokes in the rear wheel, I knew that 
I was looking upon an illustration of spiritual 
truth.^' 

"I saw that wheel and made a special note of 
all the words that were written upon it," remarked 
Mrs. Felix, whose face was flushed with intense 
interest, not to say real excitement, as though one 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 15 

had spoken to her from among the living spirits 
revealed in that glorified tandem as it swept 
through the clouds into the plains of Paradise. 

"And may we not have the pleasure of hearing 
directly from Mrs. Felix what her observations 
were before I proceed further to interpret the 
vision?" I asked. 

"By all means," responded a chorus of voices. 
Thereupon Mrs. Felix began to tell us a most won- 
derful story, which thrilled us more than the vision 
itself had done. 



" For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law 
to her husband so long as he liveth." —Roin. vii. 2. 



CHAPTEE III. 

"Upon the forward wheel of this tandem/^ said 
Mrs. Felix, "I saw, inscribed in large letters, the 
words New Testament, and upon the rear wheel 
the words Old Testament. The spokes of the for- 
ward wheel were named Grace, Truth, Peace, and 
Joy. The spokes of the rear wheel were Tem- 
perance, Honesty, Chastity, and Patience. Every 
part of the mechanism seemed to be of the very 
best material. 

i6 



A BICYCLISTS DREAM. 



17 



"The riders were a gentleman and lady, who 
seemed to be husband and wife. The lady was 
in front, as is customary, but the part assigned to 
her by her husband was simply to guide the wheel. 
He was doing all the hard work of pushing, as was 
manifested by the sweat of his face and the tri- 
umphant movement of his muscles. I noticed, 
however, that now and then she did a little push- 
ing also, in order to make his burden lighter. But 
he seemed happier when she was taking it easy, 
simply guiding the wheel, enjoying her surround- 
ings, and delighting herself in the fruits of his 
labors and the pleasure of his companionship. 

"I think there was also instruction in the rela- 
tion of her position to the forward wheel. Mne 
tenths of her weight rested on that wheel, and her 
joy and safety depended on keeping that wheel 
clear of all obstructions. The New Testament is 
woman's part of the Bible. It exalts her. It was 
to a woman's ears that the message of the incarna- 
tion of Immanuel was first proclaimed. It 
was to a woman's ears that Jesus first an- 
nounced that He was the Messiah. It was to 
a woman's ears that the first message came from 
the risen Lord. The most beautiful illustration 
of His marvelous sanctifying and transforming 
power while on earth was the woman, Mary Mag- 
dalene. The most charming manifestation of de- 
votion recorded in the New Testament was seen 
2 



i8 A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 

in the alabaster box of ointment with which a 
woman anointed the feet of her Lord. The most 
illnstrions example of generosity ever seen in this 
world was the woman that Jesns saw casting 
her two mites into the treasury. 

"The New Testament and Old Testament are 
only other names for faith and works. And as 
faith without works is dead, so the New Testament 
without the Old cannot accomplish the pnrpose 
for which it was made. Were the New Testament 
to break down, woman would fall into the dust and 
be crushed by man, simply because man also would 
fall, and the laws of gravitation make it impossible 
for him to do otherwise. 

"Many a woman, however, has suffered, not be- 
cause of any accident to the wheel which she is 
guiding, whose spokes are made of grace and truth 
and virtue and joy, but because of her husband^s 
carelessness in breaking the spokes of the rear 
wheel, which were intended to bear him up and 
make him useful and happy. What lady would 
enjoy riding on a tandem with a gentleman if she 
knew that he had already broken the spoke of tem- 
perance, honesty, or chastity? He could not fall 
without danger of hurting her, even though she be 
not at all at fault. 

"I have seen women married to men with the 
avowed purpose of reforming them. The experi- 
ment usually proves a failure. For the under- 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



19 



taking is just as difficult to accomplish as it is for 
a lady to get on a tandem with, a drunken man and 
successfully wheel him home. 

"When Mr. Felix and I made up our minds 
to undertake this century run, I arranged to bring 
with me a camera which I call Memory. It works 
like a kodak, and never fails to take in the whole 
situation instantly. Moreover, by a secret process, 
it immediately develops the photograph perfectly. 
I had an understanding with Mr. Felix that when- 
ever I desired to photograph a scene he would at 
once assume the entire responsibility of pushing, 
steering, and controlling' the wheel. The result is 
that I have a number of interesting photographs, 
which I mean to keep as souvenirs of this journey." 

"Show them to us, show them to us !" exclaimed 
a quartet of voices. Mr. Felix himself at last 
joined in our request, and it was then unanimous. 




" Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but 
witliin ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." —J/aif. xxiii. 28. 



CHAPTEE ly. 

The first picture that Mrs. Felix showed to ns 
v/as the one which she took of Mr. Cutprice Cheap- 
goods soon after he started with ns on onr century 
run. It was the name of his wheel which attracted 
every one^s attention more than anything else about 
it. He claimed that it was the cheapest machine 
on the market^ and as good as the best. He never 
would tell us how much he paid for it;, but he was 
very fond of reminding us how extravagant we 
were in purchasing wheels at exorbitant prices iu 
order to get the benefit of the trade-mark of prom- 
inent manufacturing concerns. 

20 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM. 



21 



Mrs. Felix suspected that somethmg would hap- 
pen to that wonderful wheel before the sun went 
down, and so she photographed it and its rider 
during th^e very first mile of our journey. While 
we were looking at the picture she told us what 
happened to him. 

"As we were going up that heavy grade near 
the top of Liberty Hill, something suddenly 
snapped in that wonderfully cheap wheel. Mr. 
Warner Amicus, who was following next to him 
in line, promptly informed him that one of the 
spokes in his rear wheel had broken. It was the 
spoke named Patience. 

^^To our great surprise, Mr. Cheapgoods paid no 
attention to the warning whatever,- except to sar- 
castically remark that if nothing worse than that 
ever happened to him he would surely finish the 
century run ahead of Mr. Amicus. 

"Just as he was reaching the summit of the hill 
another spoke broke. It was the spoke named 
Temperance. Thereupon Mr. Amicus urged him 
to dismount and to repair his wheel, and promised 
to assist him. But Mr. Cheapgoods was evidently 
vexed at the situation and unwilling to acknowledge 
that he was in need of assistance. He turned his 
flushed face toward Mr, Amicus in a fit of passion, 
and asked him to mind his own business. He then 
said he did not care one whit if all the spokes 
snapped in two. 



22 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



"He had hardly finished the sentence when two 
other spokes broke simultaneously. They were 
Chastity and Honesty. The report was so loud and 
unmistakable that we demanded of him to betake 
himself out of our company, or else retreat to the 
rear of the line. For he was at that time right in 
the midst of us, going down Liberty Hill at such a 
rapid rate that we could not fail to realize that a 
sudden collapse of his wheel might cause others 
to be seriously hurt by his fall. 

"Then he reached out his fingers for the brake 
called Determination. But the handle-bar of his 
judgment, and his two corkaline handles of senti- 
ment and reason, had become slightly twisted, and 
the brake would not work. 

"This was the first time he seemed to realize in 
what imminent danger he was. And immediately 
he put forth almost superhuman strength to back- 
pedal on prayer and praise. I think he would have 
succeeded had the axle been right at the sprocket 
wheel, which was represented to us in. the vision as 
the heart. Some of us had noticed that occa- 
sionally an uneasy clicking sound emanated from 
that heart of his machine, which we could not ex- 
plain on any other ground except that there was 
something wrong with the bearings there. 

"In that critical hour, when he was straining 
every muscle to control his wheel, the crank-shaft 
broke. And in a moment, as in the twinkling of 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



23 



an eye, he dashed headlong into the ditch, smash- 
ing his wheel into fragments, and receiving numer- 
ons injuries which will cripple him for life, even 
if by good fortune they do not prove fatal/' 

When she had finished this story, and before 
she had removed the next photograph from her 
camera to exhibit it to us, I called attention to the 
trade-mark which I had observed on the tandem 
which we had seen in the clouds. It was Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost. And the name of the firm 
was the Trinity Manufacturing Company of Provi- 
dence. I thought I saw the index finger of an 
angel's hand pointing to the place where this was 
written on that wheel. 

I explained to them that it is difficult to tell a 
good wheel by the outward appearance of it. I 
said: "Much depends upon the metal or spirit of 
which it is composed. There is a world of differ- 
ence between cast-iron, wrought-iron, and steel. 
But after it is nickel-plated, enameled, or var- 
nished, it is hardly possible for an expert to tell the 
dift'erence by outside appearances. 

"So it is in the spiritual world that one man like- 
wise differs from another man in quality, capacity, 
and value. The little boy who was in school at 
Eisenach, in Germany, could boast of no ancestry 
but peasants. His father was a miner. But 
Ursula Cotta thought she saw metal in that boy 
while he stood at her door begging for bread. She 



24 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



brought liim in to her fireside^ and warmed him 
further with the sunshine of her benevolent face. 
She educated him, called him Martin Luther, and 
sent him out into the world to bless it and to show 
to generations then unborn the kind of metal out 
of which the Trinity Manufacturing Company 
makes valuable men. 

"There was a poor blind girl in isTew York city 
who sought admission into the fellowship of a 
Christian church. She was considered by some an 
object of pity, a subject of charity, a perpetual care 
and burden. But her religion had upon it the 
trade-mark of the triune God and her metal stood 
the test of the silver-refiner's fire. Fannie J. 
Crosby, that poor blind girl, has lifted the whole 
church of God on earth infinitely further heaven- 
ward than all the millionaires that ever lived on 
Fifth Avenue of our great metropolis. Tens of 
thousands of saints have already passed through 
the pearly gates singing the songs which she wrote 
in their hearts, and countless millions are yet to 
appear in the chorus of the redeemed which her 
songs have helped or saved. 

"Nine tenths of the value of a bicycle depends 
on the metal in it. And no one knows what that 
is but the manufacturer. The best of workman- 
ship amounts to but little when the metal is poor. 
The name of a reliable manufacturer, who guar- 
antees both the metal and the workmanship, is 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



25 



worth more to the purchaser than the difference in 
price. 

"Mr. Cheapgoods' wheel was labelled Special be- 
cause it was probably made up of parts of numerous 
other wheels. It is an easy matter to find enough 
sound parts in three or four wrecked wheels to make 
one whole wheel. Any one can make a wheel of 
that kind. It ought to be labelled Unsafe or 
Dangerous. But^ of course, no one would buy a 
wheel with such a name on it. And in the spiritual 
world many awful calamities would be avoided if 
only every doctrine could be compelled to bear an 
expressive, appropriate, and truthful name. 

"Every now and then a man leaves the church 
of an evangelical denomination and starts one of 
his own, which he calls Special. He gathers 
around him a few remnants of some cast-off and 
broken-down Methodists, some old plugged tires 
from the Congregationalists and Baptists, a num- 
ber of scarred and well-battered frames from the 
Presbyterians and Lutherans, and some broken 
links from the endless chain of an unstable crowd 
of unworthy members in all churches. He calls 
this new organization the ^Church of the Holy 
Saints.^ And he puts this wondrously constructed 
machine on the market with a flourishing of 
trumpets and undersells all competition. The 
machines are quickly sold, and so are the people 
who buy them. 



26 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



"I reproved Mr. Cheapgoods on one occasion, in 
the presence of his wife and children, by telling 
him that if he were instructed by the king to pur- 
chase a bicycle for the king-^s son, the heir to the 
throne, he wonld not think of procuring a cheaply- 
made or second-class article. He wonld insist upon 
having a wheel of best material and workmanship. 
For the life of the heir is too valuable to be en- 
dangered by poor material or poor workmanship. 
I told him that he ought to love his wife and 
children too dearly, and to regard their lives too 
precious in his sight, to recommend for them, or 
to use for himself, a wheel which he would not 
regard as sufficiently safe for the king's son. 

^''I am told that when any one is sick in Mr. 
Cheapgoods' family he will not send for a 
physician until the sufferer is very, very low. And 
that then he always sends for the cheapest doctor, 
no matter how ignorant or disreputable the man 
is. He had a beautiful little child, a girl five 
years old, who died twelve months ago. I am 
reliably informed that the poor little creature need 
not have died if her father had sent for a good 
physician, or if he had sent for any physician at 
all in due time. The little thing was suffering 
intensely, and she begged her father to call a 
doctor for her. But he told her that she could get 
on without one and that she would get over it next 
day. But when the next day came she was uncon- 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



27 



scions^ and so he then went to town and got a new 
cheap one^ who aroused her to consciousness and 
forced her to take such a dose that she died within 
two hours. 

^^Mr. Cheapgoods is a man of considerable prop- 
erty. He has mortgages amounting to thousands 
of dollars. For this reason I could not have 
grieved over his misfortune if he had broken his 
neck at the same time that he broke his wheel. 

"In the spiritual world there are thousands of 
men like Mr. Cutprice Cheapgoods. They never 
give a moment's consideration to the question of 
what is the best and most scriptural church in the 
world. They never ask whether it has on it the 
trade-mark of the Trinity Manufacturing Com- 
pany. They risk their eternal life on creeds which 
they have never carefully examined. Many awful 
calamities result. Over the precipice into the 
eternal abyss they plunge, xlnd all because they 
set out on the road to heaven with unreliable^, un- 
orthodox wheels^ which they never would have 
owned if they had not considered one wheel as 
good as another so long as they have similar out- 
side appearances and are all going in the same 
direction." 

AVhen I had finished making these explanations 
Mrs. Felix said: 

"Let me now produce my second photograph, 



28 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM. 



and if you think yon can see in it any spiritual 
import of real value I would like to have you state 
what it is." 

As she said this she opened her camera and took 
therefrom the picture of John E. Blatant and his 
wheel. 



" Thou liast faith . . . the devils also helieve and tremble." 

—Jas. a. 18, 19. 

CHAPTER y. 

"I HAVE two photographs of this wheel and one 
of another wheel just like it/^ she said as she 
brought out this one. "What do yon think of its 
spiritual import as it appeared when we started 
on our journey, at which time this photograph was 
taken r 

"I should call this an anti-missionary wheel/' 
I replied, "because of its monstrous big faith and 
notorious little works. It is a good wheel to ride 
when one wants to commit involuntary suicide. 



29 



30 A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 

^^It is a heterodox wheel. Almost the entire 
weight of the rider is on the large wheel of faith. 
He would have no wheel of works at all if he conld 
get on without it. He has made it as small as it 
could possibly be made without danger of it be- 
coming a positive hindrance. Nevertheless this 
sort of wheel is very fashionable in the spiritual 
world, regardless of the fact that it is so manifestly 
heterodox and so emphatically dangerous. 

"I have heard one hundred testimonies in prayer 
meeting, and ninety-nine of them bore directly 
upon faith rather than works. I have heard one 
hundred prayers, and more than half of them 
petitioned the Heavenly Father for more faith. 
Now and then I have heard one devoutly thank 
God for the privilege he has had of relieving some 
destitute family, of contributing to the spread of 
the gospel among the heathen, of comforting some 
one in distress, or of leading some soul to Christ. 
But such prayers are few. Men seem to feel that 
the numerous opportunities to help somebody are 
the deviPs plans of annoying them instead of God^s 
plans for testing them, developing them, and pre- 
paring them for a higher sphere of usefulness in 
the world to come. 

^^This sort of wheel is out-of-date. It repre- 
sents the crude ideas of well-meaning men, who 
were both faithful and skillful in their efforts to 
discover the perfect bicycle. They were inspired 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN: 31 

with new ideas^ but they were not able to realize 
their dreams. They had to leave their task for 
their children to finish. And with this material in 
hand their children have constructed the modern 
wheel and found the perfect bicycle for which 
their fathers sought. But these children would 
probably never have accomplished this had not 
their noble fathers left to them this crude wheel 
on which to ride into a new world of thought. 
This wheel;, therefore, represents a certain stage 
of progress and enlightenment in the search after 
truth. 

^'In the spiritual world there wa^j once a time 
when men thought that works were of small con- 
sideration in comparison with faith and purity of 
life. And the product of that sort of crude think- 
ing was the hermit, who withdrew from the social 
life of the people and made his home in the caves 
of the mountains. There he could no longer be 
disturbed by the cry of the oppressed, nor by the 
emaciated faces and outstretched bony hands of 
the starving children in the streets. Alone in his 
cave he could meditate on divine things and hold 
communion with God undisturbed by the noise and 
clamor of the outside world, where tales of woe 
and of crime filled the air. 

"That day has passed. It represented the stage 
of progress in the faithful search after truth by 
men of noble impulses, who were faithful unto 



32 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



death, and who dreamed of a perfect type of 
Christianity unto which they did not attain, though 
they sought for it diligently through many years. 

"There are hermits today in the spiritual world. 
Some of them are in New York city, Boston, and 
Chicago. Some of them have immense wealth. 
They do not live in the limestone caves of the 
m.ountains, but in brownstone palaces on the 
avenue, where they are much better protected from 
the cry of the oppressed and from the pitiful sight 
of the helpless and suffering. 

"The up-to-date Christian has learned that in- 
stead of having a little wheel of works following 
a big wheel of faith, the one ought to be as large 
as the other. They are related to one another as 
the law of action and reaction, or as positive and 
negative electricity. The man whose left arm is 
shorter than his right is not more manifestly de- 
formed than is he whose faith is greater than his 
works. As a man whose right leg is shorter than 
his left hobbles along the street, so are many 
Christians limping along the road to heaven be- 
cause their works are not equal to their faith. 

"We are not born into this world simply to live 
by faith and to cultivate faith. So far as we know 
we shall have no particular use for faith when this 
life is ended. Faith, therefore, is not the end to 
be sought for, but the means to accomplish some 
other "end. We are born into this world to be 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



33 



trained here for service In the world to come. We 
have not mastered the lesson which we are sent to 
this earthly school to learn imtil we know how to 
serve God and our fellow men to the best possible 
advantage. He who learns this lesson well will 
be promoted to a high position of honor in heaven. 
He who refuses to learn this lesson may have a 
lai'ge faith, but as his faith will be of no particular 
value to him in heaven, and as he has no training 
for service, it is difficult to foretell what his destiny 
will be. For the Scriptures declare that we shall 
be rewarded according to our works and not accord- 
ing to our faith. 

''John E. Blatant ought to have learned to ride 
the little wheel of his machine instead of the big 
one. Then he would have realized in the begin- 
ning that he could not make a century run with 
us, and so he would not have attempted it. Y/hat 
became of him?^'' 




" But wilt tliou know, O vain man, tliat faith without works 
is dead. "—James it. 20. 



CHAPTEE YI. 

^'This is what became of John E. Blatant," re- 
plied Mrs. Felix, holding np this photograph so 
that all of ns might see it at the same instant. "He 
kept pace with ns very well," she said, "nntil he 
came to the toll-gate. There he got into a con- 
troversy with the keeper of the gate abont paying 
his toll. He refused to pay it, and complained 
mnch abont the nnsatisfactory condition of the 
road. He accnsed the gate-keeper of being a 
swindler in asking exorbitant toll and then ex- 
pending but little of it in keeping the road in 
34 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM. 



35 



proper condition. He gave a dozen or more rea- 
sons why toll-gates should be abolished. At first 
the gate-keeper was patient and pleasant, but finally 
he got red in the face and demanded Mr. Blatant's 
fare at once witliont further controversy, threaten- 
ing to have him arrested if he attempted to proceed 
without paying. Mr. Blatant then paid the 
charges, but it was too late then to prevent our 
party from feeling ashamed of him, and so we 
proceeded on our journey wishing that he had staid 
at home. 

'^About a mile from that toll-gate there were 
some small stones in the road scattered here and 
there as if workmen had carelessly dropped 
them from their wagons while making some repairs 
in a culvert close by. The sight of them seemed 
to make Mr. Blatant angry, and in consequence he 
V\'as, of course, a bit nervous. I think that was 
the reason why he lost the control of his wheel and 
struck the largest stone of them all in such a way 
that it threw him over his wheel. The rest of us 
were not annoyed in the least by the presence of 
those stones, and so we had no difficulty in passing 
them/*' 

"There is a lesson in that,'' I exclaimed, begging 
pardon for the interruption, 'Svhich I would like 
to emphasize while we are all looking at this photo- 
graph and thinking of what Mrs. Felix has just 



36 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



said. Let those stones represent tlie collections- 
tciken in our cliiirclies for benevolent works. 

"The one stone which Mr. Blatant passed suc- 
cessfully is the o:ffering received for the poor. He 
never made any outcry against that offerings but 
rarely ever had much spare change with him when 
that collection was taken. Let the stone which he 
ran against represent the offering for Foreign mis- 
sions. He never did like the appearance of that 
stone, and always became nervous whenever his 
pastor suggested that the road to heaven seemed 
to have such obstacles in it. He claimed that when 
he paid for his seat in church, which he always 
did with as much delay and reluctance as that which 
the gate-keeper discovered in him at the toll-gate,, 
he expected that the road to heaven would be per^ 
fectly smooth after that. He claimed that the 
minister who allowed any other collections to be 
taken in his church should be punished for not 
keeping the road to heaven in the good, easy-going 
condition which the large amount of money paid 
to the pastor ought to accomplish. 

"A short time ago, when he saw that a collection 
for Home missions. State missions. Publication 
society, and Ministerial education was in the regular 
pathway, he became greatly excited, seemed to lose 
his equanimity, and ran with full speed against the 
offering for Foreign missions. His ability to use 
adjectives, sarcasm, and vituperation was displayed 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 37 



before the entire cliurcli iri a most marvelous^ not 
to say shocking, manner. 

"I once knew a deacon who rode a bicycle of that 
kind. I always thonght that sort of a wheel was 
particularly unbecoming to a deacon. I imagined 
that he bought it because it was cheap. For though 
he had millions of money yet he was an awfully 
cheap deacon. You could hire him to do almost 
any sort of a thing if he could be assured that it 
would pay a seven per cent annual dividend in 
gold coin. 

^'He had a monstrous big 'faith. I think I never 
saw so large a faith. He delighted in singing 
^Just as I am, without one plea.^ He seemed to 
believe that God would save him just as he was, 
without alteration or amendment. I could not be- 
lieve one half of that without danger of bursting 
the circumference of my imagination. He be- 
lieved that he knew practically all that there is in 
the Bible, and that he did not need any one to in- 
struct or to advise him in spiritual matters. But 
he confessed that he had never had the time to 
read the Bible through since he was a boy, and 
that for the last tvrenty years his business affairs 
had required so much of his attention that he had 
not been able to devote fifteen minutes a day to 
the consecutive study of any portion of the Scrip- 
tures. 



38 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



"0 yes, he had a monstrous big faith ! I went 
to him once for some money to purchase food and 
clothes for the little children of a starving woman 
whose husband was a common drunkard. The man 
had once worked for him and had been discharged 
for alcoholism and incompetency. The deacon 
impatiently heard my story and then said that the 
worthless fellow ought to take care of his own 
family. He said, moreover, that if business men 
would respond to all the appeals made to them 
nowadays they would all be bankrupt in sis 
months. 

"My countenance probably revealed my sore dis- 
appointment. For as I was going out of his office 
he remarked to me that he had faith to believe that 
he knew his own business better than other people 
did, and that he would esteem it a favor to be 
allowed to make his own choice as to where and 
when he should give money, without unsolicited 
suggestions from the pastor or any one else. More- 
over, he informed me at that time, with a great 
deal of emphasis on the remark, that usually he 
did not let his right hand know what his left hand 
was doing. I think that on one occasion and an- 
other I heard him repeat that text more than fifty 
times, but I never saw him practice it once. 

"He had a monstrous big faith. But his works 
were so small I never could find them. I made 
some inquiries as to how he became a deacon. The 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



39 



brethren said that they elected hmi to that office, 
hoping thereby to interest him in the affairs of the 
church and incidentally to obtain some large offer- 
ing from him. But they confessed that the Lord 
had not blessed their chnrch very much since that 
election was held, and that neither that deacon nor 
the Lord had been very regular in their attendance 
upon the services held in their chnrch during the 
last fcAY years. 

"1 heard from there a few days ago. The deacon 
had just perfected a. fatal header for himself after 
knocking six pastors into the ditch and seriously 
wounding the seventh one." 

"Praise the Lord!" shouted Mr. Wesley when 
he heard that the deacon had finally been excluded 
from the fellowship of the saints. At this spon- 
taneous outburst of Methodist enthusiasm we en- 
joyed a hearty laugh, in which Mrs. Felix joined. 

"Amen!" replied our Episcopalian friend, Mr. 
Eitual, in the assumed voice of an illustrious 
tragedian, whose delivery he could imitate with 
dramatic effect. 

"Better wait until you see my next photograph 
of that wlieel," remarked Mrs. Felix as she pro- 
ceeded to get the next one from her camera. 




" Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things 
too high for me." — Ps. cxxxL 1. 



CHAPTEE yil. 

"This is the pliotograph of Jolin E. Blata-nt^s 
wifGj" remarked Mrs. Felix, as she held it up to view. 
''1 should have shown this to yon before T showed 
to yon the last one, if I had followed the order in 
which they were taken. For I obtained this one 
soon after Ave had started on onr jonrney, jnst as we 
were passing Mr. Blatant's honse. The pictnre 
shows three of his small children standing on the 
roadside to watch their mother go by. They were 
exceedingly amused at the figure she cut. 

"She claims that her large faith makes her per- 
fectly holy. But when her children laughed so 
40 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM. 



41 



hilariously at the appearance of a woman riding on 
that high wheel alongside of its, she bit her lips 
in anger, quickly dismounted and wickedly broke 
off a half-dozen tender sprouts from her husband's 
favorite peach tree, and proceeded to the worldly 
task of mundane discipline. 

"Mr. Blatant saw her break the peach tree sprouts 
and threatened her furiously. I could not be sure 
of the words he spoke, but his voice was as the 
voice of them that swear. I must presume, how- 
ever, that his words were sweet and saintly, for he 
declares that he has not sinned, not even o-nce, for, 
lo, these many 3'ears. 

"He came into one of our church prayer-meetings 
a few weeks ago and solemnly affirmed that he had 
not committed a sin for ten years, not since he ob- 
tained the second blessing. Perhaps I ought not to 
say he affirmed it solemnly, because his voice was 
not solemn. It was not even reverent. It was 
shockingly boisterous and secular. He railed 
against those who do not ride on high Avheels like 
his. He said he could talk by the hour of the 
lofty experiences which he enjoys in his innermost 
soul when perched up there on the easy saddle of 
that high wheel, far above the rest of sinful, dust- 
covered humanity. 

'^He* talked such a long while, made so many 
wild gestures, looked so fierce, and shrieked so 
loudly, that he made some of us very nervous and 



42 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



gave ITS sncli a terrible headache that we could no 
longer enjoy the meeting nor feel that we had been 
blessed by the seryice. 

^^'\^lien we arrived home from that meeting I 
asked ^Ir. Felix if he thonght that Jesus would have 
railed against the rest of mankind like that, and if 
so whether he thought Jesus would have spoken 
in such a boisterous manner as to give his hearers 
the headache. And in reply to my questions he 
quoted 1 Cor. v. 11 and vi. 10, where railers and re- 
vilers are classified in the same category with 
drunkards, idolaters, and fornicators. 

"But whether John E. Blatant was perfectly holy 
or not, he knew very well, and all of his neighbors 
knew, that his children were by no means per- 
fect. Some of us believe that it is just as much a 
command to train up one's children in the way 
they should go as it is to refrain from stealing and 
lying. 

"Perhaps I maybe wrong, and if I am I hope some 
of you will correct me, for I believe that a man can- 
not be perfectly holy and have a high temper. I 
imderstand the parable of the Prodigal Son to teach 
that the elder brother's high temper and mean 
disposition was in Jesus's sight much more criminal 
than the prodigality of the wayward boy. Xow, 
am I right or not?" 

"Mrs. Felix must remember that she has a little 
temper of her own, according to present indica- 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



43 



tions/^ I answered^ ^'and while she is condemning 
Mr. Blatant she is indicting herself." 

"I do not claim to be perfect/' she replied, 
smiling good-natnredly, "but Mr. Felix claims that 
I am." 

"'XeTertheless," said I, "her interpretation of the 
Scripture to which she has referred, is the correct 
one. It ought to be called the parable of the 
Elder Brother instead of the parable of the Prodi- 
gal Son, because it is to the objectionable traits in 
the elder brother's character that onr Lord calls 
special attention. It was for that purpose that 
he spoke the parable, and it was because the Phari- 
sees saw that he had stnng them with the shooting 
of his pointed arrow into the Yery vitals of their 
pretensions that they scoffed at him. He had 
practically said to them that of the two classes of 
men the character of the penitent outcast was less 
objectionable to God than the character of the im- 
penitent, self-satisfied, hot-tempered Pharisee. 

"Mrs. Felix, however, makes her mistake in con- 
demning all people who claim to be holy, simply 
because Mr. Blatant's life did not correspond to his 
profession. If Mrs. Felix has never seen, and never 
does see, a perfectly holy person on earth, that will 
not prove that there are none. 

"The more valuable a thing is the more likely 
it is to be imitated and counterfeited. To be a 



44 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



perfectly holy person is the most valuable ac- 
complishment to be had on earth. The lives of 
Enoch and Elijah testify that it was possible to 
attain nnto perfect holiness under the Old Testa- 
ment dispensation.. If the New Testament dis- 
pensation is an easier and better one^ why then 
should it be thought impossible to attain unto per- 
fect holiness now? 

"I have seen people who did not claim to be per- 
fectly holy^ and yet^ so far as I could see, they were 
surely blameless. It was not necessary for them 
to set up a claim to holiness and to defend them- 
selves by quoting Scripture to show the solid foun- 
dation on which they stood. Everybody could see 
that they were holy. . They did not need to talk 
about it. Everybody who had any dealings with 
them could see clearly that God had given them a 
new name and that the name was not Blatant, nor 
Talkative, nor Ignorance, nor Hypocrisy. 

"But I have seen others who made pretensions 
to holiness in order that they might contract bills 
which they never meant to pay. No merchant 
ought to allow himself to be thus deceived. When 
such people ask for credit they ought to be re- 
minded that there is a commandment which says 
that we should owe no man anything, and that to 
encourage them to break this commandment would 
be to take a criminal part in reducing them to a 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



45 



state of imperfection. And no honorable merchant 
ouglit to be willing to take that spiritual responsi- 
bility, to say nothing of the financial risk of open- 
ing new accounts. No man can be perfect so long 
as he owes a debt that is due and not satisfactorily 
adjusted with his creditors. 

"But I am always glad to see a man of large faith, 
and the nearer he is to perfection the better I love 
him. The one thing that I insist on, however, is 
that his works shall be equal to his faith. When 
a bicycle with its two wheels equal in size was first 
invented it was called a safety. And in the spiritual 
world if a bicycler would make his calling and elec- 
tion sure he must travel the road to heaven with 
his rear wheel of good works practically equal in 
size to his forward wheel of faith. 

"I am interested in this picture of Mrs. Blatant. 
I would like to know what became of her.^^ 

"We never saw her again,'^ replied Mrs. Felix. 
"I suppose she concluded to stay at home with her 
children." 

"That showed better judgment than we have 
given her credit for," I replied. "It was not her 
judgment, but the interposition of her aroused tem- 
per and ugly disposition that caused her to give up 
the undertaking," was the quick rejoinder. 

"Did you get a photograph of Col. Moral Up- 
right," I asked, with the purpose of diverting her 
attention from the thought of Mrs. Blatant, for 



46 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM. 



whom Mrs. Felix had evidently an intense feeling of 
disgust. 

"Yes, I did. I obtained a real good one of 
him/^ she replied. Then she turned to her camera 
to get it, and removed the sight of Mrs. Blatant 
from onr view. 



" For by grace are ye saved through faith; . . . Kot of works, 
lest any man should boast." li. 8, 9. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

"Here is tlie picture of Col. Moral Upright!" 
she said, as she placed it in my hands for examina- 
tion. 

"And no hetter likeness was ever made of him/' 
I replied. "His wheel also is well photographed. 
His hicycle is almost exactly the reverse in its prin- 
ciple of construction to that which John E. Blatant 
had. But it belongs to the same age and is now 
ont-of-date. 

"In this pattern the wheel of faith is small but 
that of works is large. The pedals are curiously 

47 



48 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



constructed. But tliey are -not more curiously 
constructed than are the prayers and testimonies 
of CoL Moral Upright. I haye often wondered 
whether his prayers and praises have any well- 
conceived bearings in them. Then, too, I have 
wondered why his handles of sentiment and reason 
are so far removed from his wheel of faith. But 
he boasts a great deal of the excellency of that sort 
of an arrangement. 

"I have always liked Col. Moral Upright. He is 
a near neighbor to me, and a better neighbor no one 
ever enjoyed. For he is a cultured gentleman, a 
full graduate of the University of Ethics. He is 
kind-hearted and genial. I like his companion- 
ship. And I am always pleased to have my wife 
and daughter visit in his home and associate with 
his children. If all who live near me were as good 
people as his family is it would not be difficult to 
love my neighbor as myself. 

'^I have always regretted, however, that Col. Up- 
right is not more religious than he is. H he were 
only disposed to do so he could be of so much help 
to the church and to the cause of Christ! For he 
is very charitable. He has never refused to con- 
tribute liberally to any benevolent object I have 
brought to his attention. In that respect he is 
much better than many church members. 

"Moreover, when there is sickness in my home, 
or whenever he knows of any distress anywhere 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



49 



else, lie is prompt to ofTer sympathy and assistance. 
Everybody likes him. He is undoubtedly one of the 
foremost and one of the best citizens of our city. 

"But he has his faults. Of course he has. He 
has no special regard for the Sabbath day. He 
thinks it ought to be and is a holiday. He rarely 
ever goes to church. I have often wondered how 
he spends his Sundays. As nearly as I can find out 
he sits up on Saturday night imtil midnight attend- 
ing to his affairs, and then he retires and sleeps until 
near midday next morning. Thus he spends half 
of the day in real rest. 

"The first thing he does after he gets up is to 
read the Sunday newspapers before breakfast, or 
at table. He says the Sunday newspapers help him 
to praise and pray more intelligently. N"o wonder 
he likes a bicycle with such peculiar pedals. He 
says there is a sermon in every Sunday newspaper, 
but that he rarely ever reads it. 

"After he has finished reading his Sunday news- 
paper he frequently goes out for a spin on his wheel 
into the surrounding country. He says that the 
fresh air and the beautiful scenery in the out- 
lying country districts make him feel much more 
like prayer and praise than going to church does. 
Indeed it refreshes and inspires him very much. 

"Sunday evening he enjoys a social game of 
cards with his family. Sometimes a few intimate 
friends are present. He declares that there is 

4 



50 A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 

nothing more fascinating and restful to him than 
-a social game of whist, especially after he has ridden 
his wheel a dozen or more miles into the country 
^nd back again. 

^'I do not like the way Col. Moral Upright spends 
his Sundays. Nevertheless he is a good man, or 
at least everybody says so. For he does not break 
the law of the land in what he does, and his 
knowledge of the law of God is very limited, so 
that he does not know or seem to care whether he 
is obeying God or not. His faith is small. 

"I was greatly amused at his first attempt to 
Tide a wheel. He had come to my house to make 
a neighborly visit one beautiful moon-lit summer 
evening, and was seated in a willow rocking-chair 
on my front veranda awaiting my return from 
down-town, where I had gone on a small errand. 
As I dismounted I asked him why he did not learn 
to ride a wheel. He said he guessed he could ride 
as well as any one if he wanted to. I laughed quite 
heartily at that remark, and my laughter made him 
determine to try it. 

"Be asked me to ride up and down the street 
several times that he might see how I did it, and 
then he would get on and ride just precisely the 
same way. I did so. But I was laughing so heart- 
ily at the idea that I came near to falling off my 
wheel, and thereby showing him how to recite that 
first lesson. In no wise daunted, however, he in- 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



51 



sisted on having his way. And I made up my mind 
to do whatever he requested. 

^^But when I saw him try to mount my wheel I- 
quickly suggested that I had an old wheel in the 
cellar which I would rather he would practice on. 
He looked at me in astonishment, and wanted to 
know if I thought he was unable to purchase me a 
new wheel in case he broke mine. But his aroused 
indignation vanished immediately when I replied 
by asking him if he had made any provision for 
securing me a new wheel in case he broke his neck 
and my wheel at the same time. 

^^He asked me to hold the wheel till he got on. I 
did so. Then he asked me to start him and keep 
him balanced for about ten steps and let him go. 
I did precisely as he directed. It was an asphalt 
pavement in that street, and it was considerably 
down-grade where I started him. The moment 
I let him go he started straight for the left side 
curbstone. Seeing his mistake he immediately 
yanked his handle-bar ninety-nine degrees in the 
other direction and proceeded straightway to de- 
scribe an elliptical curve towards the curbstone on 
the opposite side of the street. 

"Despite the sudden turns he was making his 
speed rapidly increased, until he began to think 
of death and destruction. He yelled to me to catch 
him. But before I could get to him the wheel 
went over sidewise, throwing him sprawling into 



52 



A BICYCLISTS DREAM 



the street^ where he lay dazed and semi-conscious 
on the ground. The women screamed and his wife 
fainted. Bnt I speedily helped him up and fonnd 
that he was not hurt half so badly as he was scared. 
He told me afterwards that when he struck that 
asphalt pavement he saw ten thousand stars by 
actual count and felt the earth quake three times. 

^^He laid the blame of the accident entirely on my 
wheel. He said it was not properly adjusted ta 
him. So next morning he went to a compartment 
store and purchased the wheel which you see in 
the photograph. The salesman told him it was a 
very old style of wheel and that he would rather 
sell him a better one. -But he liked it and insisted 
on having his preference. And in a few days 
he learned to ride it very well. 

"I told him afterwards, and he seemed to ap- 
preciate the illustration at the time, that people 
who look upon Jesus of Nazareth merely, as an 
example of how men ought to live and of what men 
ought to be, get about as much real benefit out of 
their religion as he obtained from seeing me ride a 
bicycle. I told him that it was impossible to write 
a book on how to ride a bicycle which would be so 
clear as to convey the idea to one who does not 
know how. And that the only way to learn to ride 
a bicycle is to begin to practice on one. When the 
first lesson is understood the young rider will be 
prepared to learn the second lesson, and not till 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



53 



then. The whole thing does not come to many 
men like a flash. 

"So there are parts of the Bible, and 23hases of 
the Christ-life, and experiences of the new heart, 
which it is utterly impossible to explain to men who 
have not taken the first lesson in religions training. 
The man, therefore, who says that he will not he a 
Christian at all unless he can be an exemplary one 
is standing precisely on the same ground with the 
man who says that he will not get on a bicycle at 
all until he is assured beforehand that he will never 
make a mistake nor get a fall. The only reason- 
able and wise thing to do is to start to live the 
Christian life with all good intentions, fidelity, and 
zeal, determined to do the will of God just so far 
as that will is revealed to prayerful, sincere men 
who study His word. And the promise is to those 
who thus do the will of God that they shall gradu- 
ally know of the doctrine and comprehend the 
wondrous complex movements of the Holy Spirit as 
He operates in the machinery of God's great uni- 
verse, just as the wheelman by persistent practice 
iearns the subtle laws by which his wheel is con- 
trolled. In this manner the spiritual man travels 
the road to heaven and reaches the destination ap- 
pointed for the saints. 

"He assented to all that I said and presumed that 
it was true. But I never could prevail on him to 
make the start in that direction.'' 



54 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



"Can you tell us what became of liim?^^ I asked^ 
addressing the question to Mrs. Felix. 

^^Yes, I know what became of him/^ she replied. 
"He met with a serious accident, perhaps a fatal 
one, going up the hill of Justification. It happened 
so unexpectedly and was over so quickly that I did 
not get a photograph of his fall. But I can tell 
you how it came about. 

"When we started down Liberty Hill he lighted 
a cigar, put it in his mouth, tipped his hat to the 
rest of us, and fairly flew for a mile or more down 
that smooth grade. The hill of Justification was 
just ahead, and the first part of it is very steep. 
Evidently he struck that hill at full speed, hoping 
that the momentum thus gained would carry him 
a long way up. It was too steep, however, for a 
wheel of his kind to ascend. The forward wheel 
bounded up and the rear wheel drew backwards, 
bringing him down with terrific force. For a few 
moments we thought that he would never get his 
breath again. But when he did come to we found 
that his spinal column was terribly bruised and 
almost broken. Most likely if he recovers at all 
his mind will always be affected as the result of this 
accident.'^ 

"I warned him that something of this kind might 
happen to him,^^ I replied. "But he always seemed 
to feel that somehow or other he would escape any 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 55. 

such calamity. And wlien one feels that way his- 
case is well-nigh hopeless. 

"I asked him one day why he did not stop smok- 
ing. He said he conld if he wanted to, bnt that 
he really got a good deal of pleasure out of it of 
which he could not make up his mind to deny him- 
self. He said he formed the habit before he went 
to the University of Ethics and before he knew it?, 
poisonous effect upon the system. He admitted, 
that it was hurtful, filthy, and expensive, and that 
he wished he had never formed the habit. 
He insisted upon it that he could stop if he wanted 
to, but that it might temporarily seriously impair 
his health and constitution, to say nothing of the 
wretchedness he would experience. 

"It is so strange to me that men who believe 
in salvation by works rarely ever do many great 
works. And even when they are benevolently in- 
clined towards others they have no power to over- 
come their own habits, no inspiration to private or 
public worship, no sanctifying influences emanating 
from their own homes, and no visions of a gloriou- 
srmset when they come to die. And these things 
are the only really great things to be obtained in 
this life.^^ 

In these statements concerning the character and 
spiritual significance of Col. Moral Upright and his^ 
wheel we were all agreed. But Mr. Wesley thought 
that the fact that Mr. Upright was a colonel should 



56 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



be considered in onr estimate of his spiritual worth. 
It was Mr. Wesley's idea that because of the position 
which he held Col. Upright had more influence over 
the people than if he were an outcast or even an 
ordinary man. And that God will bring the 
colonel to account for that wide influence. Mr. 
Wesley said that to lead five hundred men a little 
way into error is just as bad as to lead only one man 
five hundred times further into it. 

This started a discussion on what constitutes a 
degree of sin, and the difference between a little 
sinner and a great one. I knew of no better way 
to bring this unsatisfactory and animated discus- 
sion to an end than by asking Mrs. Felix to show 
us the next photograph of her collection. And so 
this I did. 




*• Beware of clogs, beware of evil workers." — 7'////. Hi. 2. 



CHAPTER IX. 

'•The pliotograpli of Mr. 0. B. Eesentfnl !" I ex- 
claimed as slie lifted tliis one from her camera. 
''And the ^log, whose dog is that 

"That is the picture of Mr. X. G. Thorntree's 
dog," replied Mrs. Felix. '"Or rather I should say 
that it is the picture of the dog that Mr. Thorntree 
used to have. For the dog is now in his eternal 
home, beyond the reach of Mr. Eesentfuhs wheel, 
although" he took the best part of that wheel with 
him when he went. 

"'The dog lost his life directly in front of the 
rickety cabin which his master rented a few weeks 
ago, and which has quickly become notorious as the 
home of Mr. and Mrs. Thorntree. 

57 



S8 A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 

"Mr. Eesentfiil was quietly speeding along tlie 
cyclist path near Temptingtown, apparently dream- 
ing of happy days gone by or of days yet to come, 
when suddenly this dog came rushing into the road, 
leaping towards his wheel, and barking frantically. 
Mr. and Mrs. Thorn tree were seated on the stone 
steps of their cabin, not more than three rods dis- 
tant, but made no effort whatever to call the dog- 
away. When Mr. Eesentful saw this he flew into 
a passion, put speed into his wheel, and ran upon 
the dog with frightful force. He broke the dog^s 
back, demolished his wheel, and fell into the green 
grass beside the road, where he was quickly sur- 
rounded by numerous unanticipated difficulties. 

"For as soon as the dog realized his defeat he 
set up a piteous howl of distress over his fatal 
wound. Immediately Mr. and Mrs. Thorntree and 
all their neighbors came running to see what the 
matter was. In less than five minutes after the 
occurrence a large crowd had assembled. And 
they were not all men and women of the baser sort. 
I saw three lawyers, two doctors, and five well-known 
politicians in the crowd. Eyes that seemingly had 
not shed tears for many months were moistened 
anew as they looked upon the dying agonies of the 
unfortunate dog and saw the expression of his 
face and eyes begging piteously for help. 

"At first Mr. Eesentful laid the blame on the 
dying dog. But he soon realized that public 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



59 



sympathy was entirely with the clog^ and that he 
was in danger of being tied up to a stake and 
flogged. In fact several of the men had gone to 
their homes and secured straps for that purpose. 
Mr. Resentful saw very clearly that the dog had 
more friends present than he had. He would have 
mounted his wheel and fled, but his wheel was 
wrenched and broken. He therefore changed his 
point of attack and emphatically declared that Mr. 
and Mrs. Thorntree were to blame for not calling 
the dog. 

^'Mr. Thorntree denied that he saw the dog make 
an assault. He solemnly affirmed that the dog was 
quietly walking along the road, and that the dog 
had just as much right to the public highway as 
any scorcher or bicycler had. He demanded that 
Mr. Resentful should prove his allegation, or he 
would proceed at once to give him such a flogging 
as he would remember in years to come. 

"Several angry-looking, rough men began to roll 
up their sleeves and to take their places close behind 
Mr. Thorntree. 

"Mr. Resentful was quick to perceive the situa- 
tion, and, beckoning to a young lawyer, asked his 
assistance. The attorney came to the front and 
asked for a suspension of judgment until he could 
have a private consultation with his client. 

"After an extended interview, which lasted so 
long that many went away in the meantime, and 



6o 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



the rest had calmed down considerably^ the attorney 
announced that Mr. Eesentful desired to make 
hnmble apology for his offense and to pay Mr. 
Thorntree ten dollars damages in settlement of the 
affair. After a prolonged discussion it was finally 
settled in that manner. After it was settled I 
heard Mr. Eesentfnl say that he was ont of pocket 
seventy-five dollars for that experience. The 
lawyer charged him twenty-five dollars for his ser- 
vices, he had to pay ten dollars damages, and he 
had wrecked a good wheel worth at least forty dol- 
lars. His financial loss, however, was not greater 
than his grief over having been compelled to make 
hnmble apology, and to give up his century run 
with us." 

"That reminds me," said Mr. Wesley after Mrs. 
Felix had finished this story, '^of an amusing inci- 
dent told me by a friend who lives in the country, 
about ten miles from the railroad and fifteen 
miles from our city. A young minister was sent 
up there to preach for the little church in the 
grove during the summer months. He was not 
an ordained preacher, but simply a ministerial stu-. 
dent from our beloved university, who had been 
sent there to spend his vacation among the hills 
and incidentally to guide and instruct the people 
in their worship. 

"He was an Armenian. But he soon won the 
hearts of the people, and told them many interest- 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



6i 



ing things about liis country. He told them, how- 
ever, that there is no country in all the earth to 
be compared with America, where joy is unmixed 
with sorrow and where liberty is unrestrained. 

''The farmers were much pleased with the fervicT 
glow of the foreigner's patriotism, as it flashed forth 
repeatedly in the oratorical flights of the enthusi- 
astic Armenian. They knew that he would learn 
a few more lessons by and by, but they rather en- 
joyed listening to a sophomore's views of America's 
greatness and destiny. 

"One evening about sunset the young Armenian 
was riding through the wide stretch of woods on 
the road from the church to the senior deacon's 
home. He was on his wheel, and was going to 
make a social call, with the expectation of meeting 
a large number of young people there. In fact he 
had become very much interested in the deacon's 
youngest daughter, and this social had been planned 
with the view to promoting their happiness. 

"When he was about half way through this long 
stretch of woods, there came into the road a little 
animal about the size of an ordinary cat. It was 
black, except a white streak or two running from a 
white patch on its forehead to the long bushy 
tail, which was curled up on its back most grace- 
fully. The animal did not appear the least fright- 
ened at the Armenian's proximity, but seemed to 
delight itself in running leisurely along in the mid- 
dle of the road. 



62 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



Armenian had never seen nor liad lie ever 
heard of any animal like this. It was a great curi- 
osity to him, and he carefully noted that its legs 
were very short and its fur very fine and beautiful. 
He was fully prepared to describe it minutely to 
the senior deacon on his arrival at the party. 

^' Just then it came directly into his path, look- 
ing defiantly at him as if challenging him to mortaj 
combat. That aroused his quick temper to a fit of 
passion, and he instantly resolved to run over the 
animal and kill it, and take it with him for ex- 
hibition. With that impulse of vengeance he 
pushed quick speed into his wheel, and steered it 
accordingly. And in a moment, in the twinkling 
of an eye, he struck the animal, broke its back, 
smashed his wheel, lost his balance, and lay in the 
road holding his' nostrils, gasping for breath, and 
wondering what on earth had happened to him. 

^•'He did not go to the party that night. He was 
at a loss to know what to do. He wrote a note, but 
he could not get a boy who would consent to touch 
it after he had written it. He loathed himself. 
He was told that he could not ride that wheel 
again until next season, and that it was doubtful 
if he could enter the university until after the first 
term was over. As for preaching in the pulpit 
of the little church, the idea would have to be 
abandoned for at least sixty days. 

^"He went to see the doctor. The doctor's wife 
answered the door-bell and immediately declared 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 63 



tliat tlie doctor was not in and that the patient had 
better go to meet him down the turnpike towards 
the grocery store. An old loafer was sitting on a 
big pine box in front of the grocery as the Armenian 
approached, and warned him not to enter the store, 
where several ladies were making purchases. The 
Armenian learned from the loafer what the name 
of the animal was, and that the best way to recover 
from his condition was to go and bury himself for 
one month. 

"The young man finally became disgusted, left 
his wheel standing in a fence-corner in the middle 
of an untilled farm, stripped off: his clothes on the 
banks of the river, buried them in the sand, swam 
across the stream at midnight and begged an old 
suit from a friend on the other side, borrowed a 
few dollars to pay his car fare to another town, and 
has never since been seen in that community. He 
told the ticket agent at the depot that he had 
enough of America and was longing once more for 
his own native land.^^ 

"We all laughed heartily at Mr. AYesley^s story, 
because we knew the deacon and his daughters and 
had heard of the Armenian. But we had never 
heard why it was he left the community so sud- 
denly. 

When they had finished telling of these two 
occurrences they asked me if I could tell them of 
any analogous experiences in the spiritual world. I 
told them that I knew of hundreds of such in- 



64 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



stances. And I gave tliem tlie experience of a well- 
known millionaire, who is still living. He lived 
in Clmrcliville at the time of this stor}^, where he 
owned large mannfacturing plants and employed 
himdreds of laboring men. 

"One day a worthless fellow crossed his path and 
made some very insulting remarks. My good friend 
determined immediately, like Haman of old, that 
he wonld have summary vengeance npon this 
offender. His idea was to crush him, crnsh him 
qnickly, crush him completely, and thus deter 
others from daring to do likewise. 

"He entered a complaint against the poor fellow,, 
and dismissed from his employ all who were in any 
wise related to the offender. Moreover, he gave 
his friends to understand that any one giving the 
despised wretch emplo3mient or encouragement 
would thereby forfeit his patronage and good-will. 

"I urged him to pay no attention to the despi- 
cable creature, and warned him that a bicycler can- 
not afford to run over dogs, even when the dog is 
altogether to blame. I warned him that a very 
little dog oftentimes has very many and some very 
big friends. But he paid no attention to my coun- 
sels. 

"He won his case in the courts, convicted the 
poor wretch and had him sent to jail for six moniixe. 
But public opinion took sides against him, and the 
more the matter was discussed the more sympa- 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



65 



tliizers the clown-trodden outcast obtained. The 
result was that my good friend lost the love and 
respect of thousands of people. He was pictured 
in cartoon and written up in contemptuous epithets 
until half the happiness of his life was destroyed. 

"The last time I saw him he said to me, 'I wish I 
had taken your advice. I can run over dogs and 
break their backs if I want to, but I am convinced 
that it does not pay. I am almost persuaded that a 
real good man may miss getting to heaven for no 
other reason except that a dog chanced to come into 
his pathway. I have crippled myself for life by try- 
ing to run over one. I am convinced that dogs and 
skunks have their representatives among men in 
the social world, and that it pays to give them a 
liberal part of the road when we meet them.' 

"I heartily endorse the conclusions to which my 
friend came. I have seen good men and women 
come to great grief by their determination to run 
over an aggravating, despicable creature belonging 
to an inferior order of animals. And what a reflec- 
tion it will be for them in the next world if they 
shall fail to miss heaven and all the glories of 
which they have dreamed, simply because of their 
inordinate desire to kill or cripple a dog which 
chanced to come into their way while they were 
traveling the road to heaven 



5 



"And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when 
they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and 
riches mul pJeasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfec- 
tion."— Z(^/.( riii. 14. 



CHAPTEE X. 

~\¥e all knew that some of our party had not been ' 
seen in our company since we passed the places of 
questionable amusement. Mr. U. B. Gay and Miss 
I. M. Pretty, Mr. E. Z. Tripper and Miss Winnie Q. 
Lightfoot were among the number who turned 
aside into the village of Worldly Pleasure to visit 
the ball-room there. We urged them not to leave 
us and to grieve us for such folly. But they said 
it was not folly, but simply rest and recreation for 
66 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM. 



67 



the weary. Mr. E. Z. Tripper said that it was like 
an oasis in the desert journey of a Aveary traveler, 
to get into a place now and then wdiere one could 
forget for a few moments the cares and common 
experiences of life and become intoxicated with the 
whirl and music and society of the ball-room. 

Miss Winnie Lightfoot was very anxious to go to 
the ball-room with Mr. Tripper, but Miss Inez M. 
Pretty preferred to go to the theatre. Mr. U. B. 
Gay, however, could persuade her to do almost 
anything he wished, because she was very fond of his 
companionship. He was introduced to her while 
we were passing through the park of Youth, and 
they immediately manifested such a liking for the 
company of each other that Mrs. Felix suggested 
to tliem the expediency of their getting a tandem 
and making the rest of the journey together. But 
they both laughed at the idea. 

Miss Pretty was well acquainted with Mrs. Felix, 
and was the maid of honor at her marriage. So 
she took the liberty of replying to the suggestion 
of Mrs. Felixby openly declaring that in her opinion 
Mrs. Felix was much better off when she was Miss 
Grace Virtue than she has been since she became 
Mrs. Solomon Felix. Moreover, she hypocritically 
ailfirmed that in her opinion it is much more ex- 
citing and fascinating to be independent and to 
ride one's own wheel and control it as one pleases 
than it is to be on a tandem with a husband and 



68 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



have to do as he directs. But all the time she was 
saying it she looked as if she would give the whole 
world if Mr. Gay would propose to get a tandem 
and place her on it. 

Mr. Gay pleased her fancy very much. She made 
not the slightest objection to giving up the society 
of all other young men in order to retain his atten- 
tion. And Mrs. Felix manifested very great in- 
dignation over Miss Pretty's indiscreet conduct 
under the shadowy trees on Lover's Lane. 

While in the park of Youth, Mr. Gay and Miss 
Pretty did some very skillful riding. It was so 
graceful and fanciful that it elicited much applause. 
Consequently when we had passed through the park 
and were just coming out of the Plains of Parental 
Eestraint, Mr. Gay suggested to her that on their 
entering Lover's Lane — that down-grade, mac- 
adamized road which leads through great fields of 
wild oats into the village of Worldly Pleasure — he 
would like to put his arm around her waist and coast 
down that hill together at lightning speed. She 
objected that it would not be seemly. But he 
argued that it would be but a little harmless amuse- 
ment which they could both enjoy without fear 
since they were both expert riders. 

An inordinate desire to please him, and the 
natural curiosity to experience the novelty of coast- 
ing down hill with a man's arm around her waist,, 
induced her to yield to his persuasion. 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



69 



When they set out to give this remarkable ex- 
hibitiorij Mrs. Felix protested vehemently. "Be- 
cause of the numerous escapades of this kind which 
are always happening now-a-days/^ she said, "I am 
in doubt as to whether parents ought to allow their 
daughters to ride bicycles until they are well out 
of their teens. There is something in the spirit of 
a wheel which makes it very easy for a rider to have 
moments of recklessness. A good wheel anni- 
hilates space so that a youthful maiden in twenty 
minutes time may be five miles beyond the re- 
straining influences of home, and in a mood to act 
p]'omptly upon the suggestion of any newly formed 
acquaintance." 

Miss Pretty, however, did not seem to care for 
Mrs. Felix's protest. For when we came to Lover's 
Lane, Mr. Gay ran his wheel close up to the right 
side of Miss Pretty, then clasping firmly the corka- 
iine handle of Sentiment with his right hand, and 
removing his left hand from the handle of Eeason, 
he put that arm around her waist. Then they both 
lifted their feet to the coasters, and smiled into 
each other's faces as they began to feel the sensation 
of flying down the smooth roadway. 

It happened in some manner that his pedal of 
Praise struck her pedal of Prayer and broke it off. 
The violence of the collision threw her forward 
about ten feet into the bank, which was fortunately 



70 



A BICYCLIST'S BREAM 



a bank of soft sand^ so that the fall did not linrt 
her serionsl}'. Mr. Gay, however, came down head 
foremost in the middle of the road, and strnck a 
small stone with sncli force that it was broken in 
two. It stnniied him for a few minntes so that 
he lay motionless on the ground, and we thonght 
he was dead. Bnt he was not dead. His sknll 
proved to be hard and thick, and Mr. Felix assured 
ns that his head was utterly devoid of brains, so 
that the fall wonld not injnre him in the least. 

AVlien he recovered his senses he boasted that 
no other man in the whole world conld tnrn snch 
a somersault as he did and get nothing worse than 
a scalp wound. He claimed that the accident was 
entirely Miss Pretty's fault, for the reason that if 
she had managed her wheel discreetly his pedal 
^vould never have struck hers. 

]\Irs. Felix was so completely disgusted with the 
disposition of Mr. Gay, as it was manifested in all 
this, that she made no further effort to show any 
great interest in Miss Pretty's welfare. But she 
sighed a deep and heavy sigh when she heard Miss 
Pretty say that she would go with Mr. Gay into 
the Variety theatre and wait until her pedal of 
Prayer could be repaired by the village blacksmith 
of that place. 

AYe never saw them again. Mrs. Felix antici- 
pated this result, and so she look the photograph 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



7? 



of the buildings in wliich she said Miss Pretty and 
Miss Lightfoot were buried^ so far as their useful- 
ness was concerned. 

I asked her to show us this photography and toi 
tell us what she thought of patronizing such places. 
And she did so. There was no doubtful sound in 
the strings of her harp as she discoursed on this- 
subject. She spoke as one who believed every 
word that she said^ and cared not one whit whether 
other people believed as she did or not. She said 
nothing about Miss Pretty. But she did not fail 
to express her opinion of Mr. Tripper and Mis& 
Lightfoot in the most uncomplimentary phrases at 
her command. She said: 

"I very much wish that those who patronize 
such places would show by their Christian activity 
and zeal that they are not spiritually injured 
thereby. I think it is sad when the people of 
the world enter into such dangerous proceedings 
and surroundings. But when a member of the 
church of Christ — a beautiful and cultured young; 
lady like Miss Winnie Lightfoot — deliberately sets^. 
aside the warnings of her pastor^ the discipline of 
the churchy the protest of all the saints of the ages., 
andy after she has publicly passed through the gate 
of repentance^ renounced the worlds and solemnly 
declared her intention to walk not after the flesh 
but after the spirit^ — after she has done all this., 
and sealed these vows before God_, angels, and men^ 



72 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



as witnesses^ it is suicidal to lier own honor, 
offensive to tlie elmreli of God, and provoking in 
the sight of angels for her thus to wantonly forfeit 
all hope of reaching the appointed destination, '^the 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesns/ 

^"Miss Lightfoot knew very well that she would 
find nothing elevating in that crowd at the dance 
hall. The most that she ever hoped for was that 
no evil wonld result. For the fruits of such soil 
and of such climate, whenever there are any 
fruits at all, are universally evil. It always 
has heen so from the time the mountains were-, 
lu'ouglit forth until now, and will continue to be 
so until human nature is changed and the kingdom 
of heaven is come. 

^•'Going into that place has made a world of dif- 
ference with Miss Lightfoot. She was thereby 
completely lost from our company, and has missed 
seeing this marvelous vision of the Xew Jerusalem 
whicli we saw in the setting sun. She preferred the 
company and the compliments of ]\Ir. E. Z. Tripper 
and his associates. x\nd they will surely bring her 
down to sorrow and to ruin. She will rue the day 
when she met that sinful man. For he is one of 
the wiliest and most contemptible hypocrites that 
ever lived on the face of the green earth. He has 
no more sense of honor than a mule, and not much 
more sense of any kind. His chief delight is in 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



73 



laying snares for unsnspecting people and in ohtain- 
ing any sort of mean advantage over pure and inno- 
cent girls. 

''The fact is that good people mnst "he on their 
gnard at all times and places lest they he imposed 
upon hy some such unprincipled person as he is. 
Such men sneak into chnrches, and into church 
socials, and into all classes of society. But they 
are very much more at ease and at home in hall- 
rooms and theatres. It is therefore ahsolutely 
reckless for pure young ladies to go with such vile 
men into their own territory and huildings, where 
they have expert knowledge of all the means avail- 
able for securing a mean advantage over their in- 
tended victims. 

''E. Z. Tripper had the assurance to tell us that 
the intoxication of the hall-room is as restful and 
refreshing as an oasis in a desert. I have noticed 
that Christians who go to such places generally 
have very dry and desert-like spiritual lives. And 
I wonder why. 

^'The next day after I graduated from high 
school, a gentleman, more than a dozen years my 
senior, asked me to go with him to a dance one 
evening. He was a church member and professed 
to be a very pious one. I expressed astonishment 
that he washed to patronize questionable amuse- 
ments. He replied by saying that he seldom in- 
dulged in such things, but that now and then, just 



74 A BICYCLIST'S DREAM. 

for a special treat, he spent an evening in that man- 
ner. He seemed to think that there was virtne in 
the fact that he seldom indulged. 

"I asked him what he thought of the man who 
was accused of eating vultures and carrion, and 
who justitied himself hy saving that he seldom in- 
dulged in that sort of thing, that usualh' he pre- 
ferred good beefsteak or turkey, but that now and 
then, just for a special treat, he ate vultures and 
carrion. 

^^Tlie man's face turned as red as the flames in 
that lake of fire in which sinners meet their second 
death. He sprang to his feet, and without a word 
of further explanation he seized his hat and made 
his exit through our front door into the street. He 
has never spoken to me since then. But I have 
heard through one of my friends that he has been 
excluded from the church for immoral conduct, 
and that he is spending a good deal of money 
patronizing the saloons near that dance-hall where 
he wished me to go. 

"I have fully made up my mind since then that 
if any one can tell me what sort of pleasures appeal 
to the appetite of any particular individual, I can 
tell what sort of creature that individual is, re- 
gardless of what his professions may be. For in the 
epistle of James it is written: ^Ye adulterers and 
adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the 
world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, 
will be a friend of the w^orld is the enemy of God.' '' 




CHAPTEE XI. 

We were very inueli interested in all that Mrs. 
Felix had to say on the snhject of qnestionahle 
annisenients. 'Mr. Eitnal. liowever. differed from 
her in these matters of casuistry. He claimed that 
it is manifestly sinfnl to indtilge in these amitse- 
ments dnring Lent, hut that they are perfectly 
innocent and proper at any other time, if arranged 
for at a proper place and under proper anspices. 
His contention, therefore, was that Mrs. Felix was 
iinjnst and narrow-minded to condemn these 
amusements without regard to the time^ the place, 
and the society associated in them. 

75 



76 



A BICYCLIST'S BREAM 



I knew tliat Mrs. Felix had argued this question 
for hours at a time, and that Mr. Eitual had un- 
wittingly tackled an antagonist more invincible 
than he thought. For Mrs. Felix had been a school 
teacher for six years previous to her marriage, and 
Avas a trained debater of rare skill. And I knew 
that she was thoroughly well-informed on this sub- 
ject. For in our city, where she taught school, it 
is immensely difficult to get into those circles of 
society where a young lady of refined taste and 
culture can hope to form the acquaintance of such 
young men as are considered worthy of her atten- 
tion, unless she attends dances, card parties, and 
theatres. 

But Miss Grace Virtue was not one of that class 
of professed Christians who can be induced to 
crucify her Lord in order to get the attention of 
other men. 

They told her that if she persistently refused to 
indulge in questionable amusements she would not 
feel at home in the social circles, and would soon be 
left out of the ring in which was her only possible 
hope of ever receiving a desirable opportunity of 
marriage. They urged her to 3deld to the situation, 
thereby obtain a suitable huBband, and then after 
marriage reconsider these matters, and if she con- 
tinued to feel that they were sinful indulgences, 
she might then give them up and be pious and 
sanctified. 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



77 



She did not consider the proposition a moment. 
She replied that in all her reading of history she 
had never seen an acconnt of so many hnman 
sacrifices offered np on the altars of devils as in 
the present generation. "In those days/' said she, 
speaking of ancient history, "they sometimes took 
beautifnl yonng virgins by force, and tied them to 
an altar of wood, and burned them to death that 
the gods might be satisfied. Bnt now the virgins 
make haste to tie themselves to the criiel altars of 
sinful society that they may be spiritually de- 
stroyed, to please ungodly young men. 

"It is not a crime to live without a husband. It 
is a crime to live with some husbands, which have 
been secured by the humiliation of women who 
have stooped to conquer and conquered that which 
is not worth stooping for. If I ever • have a 
husband I expect the Lord to attach him to me, 
and I do not expect that the man for Avhom the Lord 
has created me will ever require or ask me to do a 
sinful thing in order to win or retain his affection.'' 

I knew the history of Mrs. Felix and the in- 
tensity of her convictions. I remembered how 
manifestly the Lord directed Mr. Felix to come to 
our city, how he met Miss Grace Virtue by a 
mysterious accident, how afterwards he chanced to 
be on the same train with her while she was on her 
way to deliver an address at a teachers' convention 
in another state. I remembered how her presence 



78 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



charmed liim from the first time he saw her, so 
that when she was not aAvare of it his eyes were 
fixed upon her in a wondering meditation, as if a 
still, small voice within him was whispering the 
strange and fascinating secret which God had in 
mind when He created her. He began to feel that 
his earthly happiness and immortal destiny de- 
pended npon his following the Divine gnidance. 

I remembered the church wedding, the floral 
decorations, the costly presents, the happy faces, 
and the general good feeling of joy and gladness 
that prevailed throughout our city when Solomon 
Felix and Miss Grace Virtue knelt under an arch 
of flowers representing a rainbow of promise, and 
received the pastor's blessing upon their marriage 
vows. The daily papers declared that the whole 
city felt proud of the fact that Mr. Solomon Felix, 
the only son and heir of the great financier and 
philanthropic millionaire, David Felix, had given 
such testimony to the great intrinsic value of the 
accomplished young ladies of our city as to select a 
companion for life from their number. 

I knew that Mr. Eitual had no chance of win- 
ning in a debate with her on this question of popu- 
lar amusements. I knew that she believed that the 
greatest blessings of her life had come to her be- 
cause of the high ground on which she stood in 
this regard. And I had heard her say in a public 
address that thousands of women are utterly miser- 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



79 



able for no other reason except that they blundered 
by accepting- such views as Mr. Eitiial had ad- 
vanced, and thereby compromised themselves with 
the world, and in the sight of their intended hus- 
bands, until they made God their enemy and 
crushed themselves with the weight of their own 
accumulated sins. 

I therefore informed Mr. Eitual that Mrs. Felix 
had reached her conclusions after years of careful 
study, observation, and experience, so that whether 
she was right or wrong her opinions had evidently 
crystallized into convictions which no amount of 
argument could change, so that by his consent we 
would dismiss the subject and proceed to examine 
the next photograph. Mr. Eitual smiled, and so 
did Mr. Felix. The Misses Parrish saw their smiles 
and caught the contagion. Then we all laughed 
outright. And Mrs. Felix, without saying another 
word, exhibited her eighth photograph, which was 
the picture of a landscape, with the forest of Im- 
prudent Trees in the background and Tattlersville 
ahead in the low, open plain. 

"When we were passing through the village of 
Worldly Pleasure,^^ said Mrs. Felix, "we came to 
the bridge which spans the river of Appetite. The 
river is not very wide at this point. But there is a 
broad, smooth road running parallel with the river 
all the way from the bridge to the Gulf of Despair. 
Some of our party preferred to take this road, 



8o 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



promising to cross the river further down^ and to 
join our party again on the Plains of Holiness. We 
told them that there was no other bridge but this, 
and that if they ever succeeded in reaching the 
other side of the river, they would have to repent 
of this their folly, retrace their steps, and follow in 
our tracks. We told them that this river of Ap- 
petite flows into the Gulf of Despair with such a 
forceful current that it continues in one stream 
through the gulf, far out into the ocean of Misery,, 
until it is lost no man knows where. But they did 
not see fit to heed our warnings, and claimed that 
we were only guessing, inasmuch as we had never 
traveled that road ourselves, and that we really 
did not know for a surety that there was no other 
bridge across that river. We never saw them again.. 

"We crossed the bridge, walked up the hill of 
Sanctification, and mounted our wheels again on 
the table-lands of holiness, where we enjoyed the 
finest atmosphere and the loveliest scenery of our 
entire journey. 

"We came to the forest of Imprudent Trees, 
which is more than ten miles square. We tried to 
avoid that forest, but on inquiry we learned that 
all roads pass through the shade of those trees some- 
where, and that we would be in no danger of ex- 
periencing any unpleasant sensations if we would 
keep together and not separate into pairs. We 
were told that the robbers who loiter in these woods 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. Ss 

live in Tattlersville, and that they never attack a 
company of more than two "unless it is very dark, 

^^We went through without any unfortunate 
scare or experiences, except that Mr. Felix's tandem 
was reported to have struck a concealed snag in 
such a manner that some of our party feared for a 
few moments that Mr. Felix and I would suddenly- 
separate. We can assure you, however, that no^ 
such thing occurred, or else the jar was so slight 
that we have no recollection of it whatever. 

"We were all quite nervous when we passerl 
through Tattlersville. We had heard of the sad 
experiences of a Christian Endeavor excursion party 
who passed through this village on their way from 
the city of Christian Culture to the city of Christian 
Usefulness. Old Mrs. Phoebe Gossip and her hus- 
band were not invited to join this company of 
young people. So they made up their minds to^ 
resent the slight by strewing tacks on the cyclist 
path and puncturing the tires of the excursion 
party. 

"As there is a law on the statute books makiiig 
this o/Tense a very serious crime, they put their wits 
together to contrive a plan by which they could do* 
this without danger of being discovered in the act.. 
They decided to fill their mouths with small, sharp 
tacks, and to take a walk together along the path 
after dark and to spit the tacks one by one 
every few feet for hundreds of yards. From the 

G 



$2 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



attic window of their wretched little home they 
watched the excursion party go by early next morn- 
ing, and saw the confusion that resulted.'^ 

When this picture was exhibited we congratu- 
lated ourselves on having escaped any sensational 
experiences with the citizens of Tattlersville. and 
discussed for a while the spiritual significance of 
the misfortane that befell the Christian Endeavor 
party. 

"There are many people whose mouths are full 
of tacks, — of sharp, biting, insinuating, angry 
words,'^ said Mr. Wesley. "And they recklessly 
strew them in the pathway of God's children, and 
they seem to get a fiendish delight in puncturing 
the tires of Christian bicyclers, hurting their in- 
fluence, tarnishing their reputation, and putting 
them to great confusion. 

"But they forget that there is a law against it, 
and that they shall surely stand before the eJudge 
cf all the earth and answer to this charge against 
them in the Supreme Court of the Universe. The 
indictment is sure, the evidence will be conclusive, 
the law is plain, the penalty is great. And it is 
light that the penalty should be great. For that 
man is the ineanest sort of a robber who takes char- 
acter away from his victim. Is there a young lady 
in all the world who wo aid not rather have tens 
ef thousands of dollars taken from her by the 
jroiigh hand, of the highwayman in the wild forest 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



83 



than to have her character ruined by the robbers 
Tattlersville? 

^^The people of Tattlersville generally make their 
assault on the most helpless individuals in the 
world. They rarely attack a strong man, or a 
woman with a brave husband, or a girl with heroic 
brothers. But they are merciless when they find 
51 helpless creature. 

"It does not require much courage for a strong 
man to shamefully entreat or to seriously wound 
a little boy. But if that boy chances to be the 
king^s son, woe unto that man who assaults the lad I 
I can understand, therefore, how God will feel 
when His little children are brought before him 
in the Judgment day to show him the cruel wounds 
inflicted upon them by the strong robbers of Tat- 
tlersville. He has said, ^Vengeance is mine; I will 
repay.' ^Woe unto that man by whom the offense 
Cometh.' ^Whosoever shall offend one of these little 
ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a 
millstone were hanged about his neck and he were 
cast into the sea.' " 

We agreed that Mr. Wesley was right, and that 
the citizens of Tattlersville would probably fare 
worse in the day of Judgment than the inhabitants 
of Sodom and Gomorrah. For we remembered 
that it was while Jesus was looking into the faces 
of the slanderers and false-accusers who were 
gathering together to put Him to death that He 



84 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM. 



said, ^'Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how 
can ye escape the damnation of hell?^^ People 
whose months are filled with insinuating, stinging 
words are personified serpents, vipers, and demons, 
whose nltimate destiny is inevitably ^'the damna- 
tion of hell/' 



^^^^ 



Cal. ri. J. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Cheistian people who go into places of worldly 
amusement frequently need a repair shop very soon 
afterwards. We passed by a dozen or more of them 

Grlr w r r ^^^^^^^^^ the 

Gieat Western Sea of Eternity. One of them was 
located at the end of Lover's Lane. It seemed to 
be domg a great deal of business. There were 
many workmen employed in it, and I saw hundreds 
of wheels there awaiting repair. Some of the 
wheels were but slightly injured, having apparently 

«S 



86 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



suffered a hard blow on their handles of Sentiment 
and Eeason, which resulted in slightly twisting the 
handle-bar of Judgment imtil the brake of De- 
termination would not work. But some of tha 
wheels were seriously hurt. The proprietor said 
they never could be fixed as good as new again. 
He said he could fix them up so they would go 
again, but that they would not run perfectly true 
because the frame of their Constitution had been 
wrenched, and because the life of the metal, which 
he compared to the nerves of the body, would not 
stand the severe strain and hard knocks necessary 
to successful repairing. 

I noticed that nine tenths of the wheels awaiting 
repair were ladies' wheels. The proprietor said 
that this was the natural result of the weaker frame 
used in making ladies' wheels. The diamond 
frame of gentlemen's wheels gives the strongest 
possible constitution, while the drop-frame of 
ladies' wheels is easily hurt. 

We passed another repair shop at the end of the 
bridge over the river of Appetite. It was located 
between the village of Worldly Pleasure and the 
hill of Sanctification. It also appeared to be doing 
a large business. 

We passed by other shops, but the two of which 
we have spoken, and the one on the western side 
of Tattlersville, were the most important ones. 
This last one made a specialty of repairing punc- 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



87 



tiired tires. The pro])rietor told iiie that during 
the bicycle season he kept forty men at work in 
his punctured -tire department alone. I asked him 
how he managed to get forty men to help him 
during the busy season without giving them em- 
ployment all the time. He said that he had been 
able to overcome that difficulty by securing the 
services of men who do not care to give all their 
time to this vrork. He then explained to me how 
his punctured-tire department was made up of three 
large rooms, with each room devoted to a special, 
class of punctures. 

The first room was in charge of ordinary work- 
men, who were fully competent to deal with or- 
dinary punctures. More than half of the work 
of this department was done in this first room. 

In the next room there were clergymen of all 
denominations engaged in repairing the more dif- 
ficult cases. N^one of them seemed anxious to do 
this sort of work, and none of them could be hired 
to work at this business all the time. But all of 
them acknoAvledged that they had had considerable 
experience in the business and that it seemed ex- 
pedient now and then for them to assist in patching 
up such difficulties as are too serious for ordinary 
people to mend. 

In the third room there were lawyers, repre- 
senting all political parties and all classes of so- 
ciety. Whenever there comes to the shop a tire 



S8 



A BICYCLIST'S BREAM 



pnnctured so badly that ordinary people and min- 
isters cannot mend it, the wheel is promptly handed 
over to this third room^ where the lawyers take it 
in hand and either mend it or destroy it. The 
proprietor said that pnnctures of this third class 
are usually very expensive, and that it would fre- 
quently be more economical for the bicycler to buy 
a new tire than to get an old one mended. "Never- 
theless/" said he, "there are people who have more 
dollars than sense, people who do not ask for nor 
take advice, people who insist that the thing they 
want must be obtained at any cost, and so I engage 
to repair their wheels according to their directions.'^ 

Mrs. Felix took the photograph of this third- 
mentioned repair shop. As she took it from her 
camera she told us of a conversation that she had 
with the proprietor when she came by that place. 

"We alighted there," she said, "to see what 
foundation there was for the report which reached 
our ears in Tattlersville that our tandem had struck 
a snag and injured the forward wheel. One man 
told another that he saw the accident and that it 
came near throwing me in one direction and Mr. 
Felix in another. Neither Mr. Felix nor I were 
-conscious of having run against anything danger- 
ous or unpleasant, but we thought we had better 
dismount and make a careful examination while 
a repair shop was at hand. 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



89 



"We found nothing whatever to indicate that 
our wheel had struck a snag. Neither could tlio 
proprietor of the shop find any fault anywliere. 
We concluded, therefore, that it was a falsehood 
invented in Tattlersville for the purpose of creating 
a sensation rather than for the purpose of annoying 
us. And so I asked the proprietor why the people 
on the Plains of Holiness allow the robhers of Tat- 
tlersville to dwell in their country. 

"'He asked me in reply to tell him why it is that 
robbers are allowed to dwell in any country. I 
told him that I did not know of any country where 
they are allowed to dwell except in the Plains of 
Holiness. He asked me then if I supposed there 
ever was or will be any country where robbers do 
not dwell in spite of the laws against them. 

"He then informed me that there are on the map 
no less than one hundred places by the name of 
Tattlersville, and that he was very thankful that 
there is but one village by that name on all the 
Plains of Holiness. He said that he was perfectly 
willing to vote against allowing that village to 
remain there, although the loss of it would greatly 
injure his business. He reminded me of the fact, 
however, that the Plains of Holiness are not abso- 
lutely level. ^There are,' he said, ^high plains and 
low plains, hill-tops and ravines, fields and forests, 
smooth roads and rough roads. And the people 
therefore do not all belong to the same social class, 



90 



A BICYCLIST'S BREAM 



nor do they have the same degree of intelligence. 
Tattlersville is situated on the very lowest plain, 
and there are people in that village who have no 
right to be in the Plains of Holiness at all. They 
are deceivers who have come in to spy out the land 
and to plunder. We cannot get rid of them until 
we have evidence against them^ and evidence is hard 
to get/ " 

"I think he was quite right/^ remarked Mr. Wes- 
ley. 

"I took him to be a man of extraordinary intelli- 
gence/^ remarked Mr. Eitual. 

^^When Mrs. Felix finishes her account of him 
I will tell you my experience in that shop/^ I ex- 
claimed. 

"I have nothing more to say/^ replied Mrs. 
Felix, ^^except that I was very much helped by the 
way he represented the matter to me. I think I 
now see why it is that so many people consider the 
Plains of Holiness a country no better than other 
lands. They forget that there are highlands and 
lowlands in those Plains, that the wheat and tares 
grow together there precisely as elsewhere, and that 
the lofty experiences of those that dwell upon the 
hill-tops should not be considered myths simply be- 
cause they have heard of the forest of Imprudent 
Trees, and the robbers of Tattlersville in the lowest 
plain." 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



91 



"I had a long talk with the proi3rietor of that 
shop/^ I said when Mrs. Felix had finished her 
story^ "and he was in a jovial mood, so that he said 
many bright things in a careless manner. 

"When we had passed through Tattlersville, Mr. 
X. T. C. Stuart and I decided to run several miles 
just as fast as we could make our wheels go. Con- 
sequently we were a long way ahead of the rest of 
our party when we came to this shop. We there- 
fore dismounted and asked to have our chains oiled 
while we were waiting for our friends to arrive. 

"The proprietor seemed to recognize a ministerial 
look in our faces, although Mr. Stuart has never 
devoted his whole time to the work of the Gospel 
ministry. He has what is called a local license, 
and preaches occasionally in the rural districts. He 
is not liked in the city pulpits, for the reason that 
he despises formality and style and grammar and 
rhetoric' He thinks that the old-time apostolic 
religion was something apart from all this, and that 
the true religion is defiled and shorn of its power 
by the scrupulous observance of rules and regula- 
tions. 

"The proprietor of this shop fixed his pene- 
trating eyes upon^us, and in reply to our request 
answered: 

Tt will cost you only ten cents each to have 
your chains baptized.^ 



92 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



^'We liad not said anything about baptism^ and we 
felt inclined to consider liis remark irreverent and 
impertinent. But we pretended not to notice it 
and consented to liave the oil put on. 

^To what church do you belong?' he asked, 
looking Mr. Stuart squarely in the face. 

" belong to the Methodist church, the best 
church in the world/' Mr. Stuart replied. And as 
he made this answer he looked towards me with a 
broad smile on his face, as if wondering whether I 
would remain silent under the soimd of that sweep- 
ing statement.. 

" ^Apply the oil to the chain. One drop is as 
good as a river!' exclaimed the proprietor as he 
handed Mr. Stuart's wheel to a workman. 

"^And to what church do you belong?' he asked 
as he took my wheel. 

" 'I belong to the Baptist church/ I replied. 

" ^ Apply the chain to the oil. Immersion is the 
only proper mode!' he exclaimed as he gave my 
wheel to the workman who had come forward to 
receive it. 

'^Now, gentlemen, I have done as I agreed,' said 
the proprietor, as our wheels were returned, ^f 
I mistake not you are ministers of the Gospel, and 
it is your business to teach people what the word 
baptize means. I agreed to baptize your chains for 
a dime each, and I have fulfilled my contract ac- 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



93 



cording to your own interpretation of that word. 
I have pnt three drops of oil on the Methodist 
chain^ although one drop would have heen suf- 
ficient. I have put the Baptist chain into a pot of 
oil, that it might be immersed in accordance with 
Baptist belief.' 

" ^The Methodist church allows us to have choice 
of the different modes of baptism/ replied Mr. 
Stuart, his face aglow with indignation, ^but you 
gave me no choice in this matter and consequently 
you have defrauded me.' 

" acknowledge my fault/ replied the proprietor 
promptly. 'I overlooked that point. But I will 
yet fulfill my contract. Which mode do you pre- 
fer? It shall be done according to your prefer- 
ence.' 

" ^0, never mind; let it be as it is/ replied Mr. 
Stuart. 'But hereafter you should be fair in your 
dealings with the members of my church.' 

"The proprietor promised to do so, and after 
making humble apology tried to change the con- 
versation, so as to get Mr. Stuart into a better 
humor. AVhen I saw that he was trying in vain to 
bring a smile on the face of my offended brother, 
I undertook to help him accomplish that task. 

"I noticed that although we had traveled the 
same road, and had begun our journey from the 
same starting point, his cyclometer registered 
nearly two miles more than mine. I told him that 



94 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



this difference was due to the fact that he had been 
making a terribly crooked path^ wabbling from one 
side of the road to the other, while I had come 
straight along. 

"He replied that no matter how crooked his path 
was it showed continuous progress, and that so long 
as a man continues to make satisfactory progress 
he should be excused for deflecting a trifle from the 
standard of perfection. 

'^^The proprietor joined in to' help Mr. Stuart 
make his defense and thereby win his favor. He 
assumed a wise and philosophical countenance, and 
emphatically declared that neither my path nor 
that of any other bicycler was ever perfectly 
straight. And he went on to explain how the 
swerving from the one side of a straight line to 
the other is the secret of how a bicycler keeps from 
falling. He drew a diagram illustrating how, by 
this means, all the physical forces are held in 
equilibrium and bicycle riding is made possible. 

"Just at that time Mrs. Phoebe Gossip, wife of Big 
Slanderer Gossip, came riding by on her way to 
Tattlers ville. She was making a terribly crooked 
path. The proprietor looked at her with an ex- 
pression of utter contempt on his face. Then turn- 
ing to Mr. Stuart he said: 

" ^Look at that woman's cyclometer, and if it 
does not register two miles every time yours regis- 
ters one, then I will give you a new bicycle.' 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



95 



" have been at work for several years/ lie con- 
tinued to say, ^trying to invent a Chinometer which 
can be attached to a woman's chin, and tucked 
away out of sight, where it can accurately measure 
the distance the chin travels in its up and down 
motion every day. I have almost got it finished. 
I told my wife it was an electric battery that would 
cure the toothache in one day. So one fine morn- 
ing I got her to put it on, and at night it registered 
twenty-five miles. And that was an unusually 
quiet day at my house. If I could only get one of 
these things on Mrs. Gossip's chin I am sure she 
could make a century run on any pleasant after- 
noon.' 

"This story brought Mr. Stuart to terms. He 
could no longer retain a disgruntled expression on 
his face. Every stiff muscle of indignation in his 
countenance seemed to suddenly collapse while this 
story was being told. At first he chuckled, then 
he laughed outright, and his sides shook until 
every unkind feeling disappeared from his heart 
and thought. 

"While he was laughing so heartily, the pro- 
prietor slipped the dime back into Mr. Stuart's 
pocket without his knowing it. Then he told me 
to tell him by and by that his chain did not need 
oiling, and that he was only having a little fun 
with him in playing that joke. 



9 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM. 



"All hour afterward I told Mr. Stuart all about 
it. He confessed that the proprietor had out- 
witted him and taught him a valuable lesson. He 
regretted very much that he failed to see the point 
in time to express his gratitude properly. He said 
he would always remember that proprietor with a 
great deal of pleasure^ and that he would make it 
a point to try to meet him again.'^ 



" Ye did run well ; who did hinder you ? "— Gal. v. 7. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

^^I HAVE a photograpli of Mr. Stuart," remarked 
Mrs. Felix, when she had heard the account of niy 
experience with him, "and it is the tenth and last 
photograph in my camera. But after I have 
shown it to you, I desire to complete a set of one 
dozen pictures by photographing this group of peo- 
ple who have made the run successfully, and by 
photographing the view of the Great "Western Sea 
of Eternity which we get from this standpoint on 
the shore." 

■ 97 



98 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



She then produced the picture^ and explained 
how it was that she became interested in him suf- 
ficiently to want his photograph. 

"When wx were passing through the plain of 
Mediocrit3^ in the county of Contentment, we left 
the middle of the rough, much-traveled highway to 
take the enterprising, up-to-date cyclist path which 
has been constructed on the right side of the road 
from the city of Obscurity to the village of Fame. 
But Mr. Stuart refused to do likewise, and persisted 
in criticising us because we did it. He said that 
the old-fashioned road which the fathers trod was 
good enough for him and ought to be good enough 
for any one else who has proper respect for the 
great achievements of the pioneers, who labored 
hard for years and years to construct these roads 
for their children to enjoy. 

'^While he was waxing eloquent over the great 
respect for the memory of the fathers which every 
loyal descendant ought to have, he slipped into a 
rut which the numerous heavy wagons that travel 
that road have made in many places. Finding it 
difficult to extricate himself he undertook to push 
along in that track. I anticipated the result and 
immediately set my camera for a snap-shot. 

"Mr. Stuart soon realized what every other 
bicycler must learn soon or late, either from the lips 
of others, or from the result of a sad experience, 
that a bicycle peremptorily refuses to go in a rut. 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 99 

It was not more than sixty seconds from tlie time 
he fell into that rut nntil he lost his balance, sprung 
his forward wheel two inches, his rear one six, and 
strained every joint in his hard steel frame. He 
was thrown to one side, bnt did not get hnrt. We 
left him there in the middle of the road, for not 
one of ns knew how to straighten oni his affairs. 
It wonld reqnire an expert to do that/^ 

Mrs. Felix looked at me and smiled significantly. 
I saw the hnmor of the situation, and the applica- 
tion which she desired to make, bnt which she saw 
was hardly necessary, and so I said: 

^^It is true that ministers do sometimes get into 
rnts. And so do all other teachers, even from the 
red schoolhonse on the hill, where Mrs. Felix nsed 
to preside, to the great imiversity in the metropolis. 
Physicians, merchants, farmers, and all other men, 
and some women, are exposed to the same danger. 

"I honor Mr. Stuart for his sincere desire to 
honor the fathers. Bnt I deny that the fathers 
ever taught ns that we should honor them by 
walking in the paths and keeping in the roads 
which they constrncted. Onr illnstrions ancestors 
did not pretend to walk in the paths which their 
fathers had made, and they were too wise and too 
good to expect of their children more honor than 
they were willing to bestow npon their predeces- 
sors. I, therefore, charge Mr. Stnart with having 
dishonored the fathers by his conduct, instead of 



lOO 



A BICYCLIST'S DREAM 



lionoring tliem, as lie meant to do. For the fathers 
alwa3's availed themselves of the best things in 
their reach, and their doctrine was that we should 
do likewise. 

"A bicycler cannot afford to travel the same road 
that the lumber wagon does. The lumber wagon 
may be worth as much as the bicycle, and more, 
and the lumber wagon may be more necessary, but 
the difference between them is as great and signifi- 
cfut as is the difference loetween the nerves of the 
hod-carrier and the college president. They are 
not made to travel the same road, nor to exchange 
places with one another, nor to go in the same 
track.^^ 

"Behold the last ra3's of the setting sun!" ex- 
claimed Mrs. Felix, interrupting my trend of 
thought, and hastily 2^1'oceeding to adjust her 
camera so as to photograph the entire group before 
the sun was set. 

Then I looked into the clouds once more, but 
the sun was gone and darkness was settling down 
upon my dream, and I lost the continuity of my 
thought. A queer feeling came over me, and I 
imagined that I was dying. I turned to my com- 
panions, but I could not see their faces. Thereby 
I knew that my last words had better be spoken 
quickly or it would be forever too late. So I lifted 
up my voice and declaimed: 



OF THE ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



lOI 



"He who rides a spiritual bicycle cannot stand 
still. He must go on or go off. His path may not 
be absolutely straight, but it must be progTcssive. 
He must beware of dogs, and of worldly-minded, 
pleasure-loTing associates. He must beware of 
sandy rDads, of ruts, and of unchaste and unseemly 
experiments. He must let no man deceive him 
with Tain philosophy and Pharisaical traditions. 
He cannot do much looking backward without 
danger of losing his balance and thereby injuring 
himself and his wheel. His motto must be the 
words of St. Paul: ^This one thing I do, forgetting 
those things which are behind, and reaching forth 
unto those things which are before, I press toward 
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God 
in Christ Jesus.^ " 



The Exd. 



1 



i 

i 
i 



ELIJAH THE PROPHET. 

A DREAM OF THE CHRIST- 



By J. BuNYAN Lemon. 



" In this Dream the reader is brought into companionship 
with this great and strange Elijah, the Tishbite. Into this 
prophet's home we enter, and see visions of the Christ-life and 
of the whole Messianic reign." — From the Preface. 

The Rev. E. C. Sage, Ph. D., D. D., Secretary of the Con- 
necticut Baptist Education Society, says : " I have read Mr. 
Lemon's book with great pleasure. I consider that, as a pre- 
sentation of Biblical scenes, it is worth ten times as much as 
' Ben LIur.' In my judgment it will prove fascinating to all 
thoughtful Christians." 

The Rev. George M. Stone, D. D., of Hartford, Conn., says : 
" You have succeeded in making a series of graphic and very 
realistic pictures of the gospel history, which is to my own 
mind sufficient to commend the book strongly. Whatever 
might be thought of the use of visions as a vehicle of thought, 
the descriptions themselves will, I am sure, bring the events of 
New Testament history closer to almost every class of mind. 
I have long taken the view you take of the place of Elijah in 
the kingdom programme. I also think the discriminations you 
make between Isaiah's prophecy and that of Malachi wholly 
tenable." 

This hook is handsomely hound in cloth, contains 282 
pages, and loas puhlished in Heptemher, 1899, hy the Flem- 
ing H. Bevell Co. of New York, Chicago, and Toronto. 



PRICE .... SI. 25. 



A Valuable 
, I Chart. 

--^^^ q^HIS is a hand- 
j 1 somely litho- 
^m'^^r graphed chart, 22x27 
inches, on excellent 
I luality of heavy paper, 
- the same thickness as 

ARRANGED BY J. BUNYAN LEMON. ^ P°'^^^ ^^^'^^ 

acknowledged to be 
the best help to Bible study ever yet invented. It is designed 
to be framed and thus to become a useful, ornamental, and per- 
manent acquisition in the home, school, or class-room. Deliv- 
ered postpaid to any address for seventy-five cents. 

" How many pupils, and 
teachers too, in your school, 
know that the Bible contains sixty-six books ? If a large num- 
ber of them know this, perhaps not so many of them know the 
order of those books. Fewer still know how the books can be 
grouped according to the kind of revelation which they contain. 
Perhaps still fewer know the relative sizes of those books. All 
this can be made plain by a glance at a chart called "The Bible 
as a Library." The chart is a lithographed representation of a 
bookcase containing two rows of books and divided by partiuons 
at points marking the different groups of volumes. Each volume 
as it stands in the bookcase is of the proper relative, thickness, 
the back of each volume giving the name, number of chapters, 
and number of words contained therein. At the bottom of the 
chart there is some printed matter containing interesting facts in 
brief about the general make-up of the Bible. The chart can- 
not fail to prove a valuable addition to the furniture of the Sun- 
day-school room." 

Rev. Augustus H. Strong, D. D., LL. D., President of the Rochester 
Theological Seminary, Rochester, N. Y. : "It presents to the eye many 
facts which are very useful and yet very dif!icult to remember. I hope 
it may meet with a wide sale. Every Sunday-school ought to have it." 

Rev. Francis E. Clark, D. D., President United Society of Christian 
Endeavor, Boston, Mass. : " 'The Bible as a 1 ibrary' appears to me to 
be a very valuable help in teaching children the character, comparative 
size, and general division of literature into wliich the books of the Bible 
naturallj' fall. It also impresses upon every one who examines it the 
fact that the Bible is, in itself, a whole library of poetry, history, and 
prophecy. Ihearlily commend it," 







■W. _ r<4~^i_ p^r^, ^^Vv. _ _i J— 1 





H 

BkycUst'e Dream ^ 

of the 

\ \. Road to Rcavcn 



Slitb IUu9tratioii9 




I 




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